Warren Buffett once referred to David Ogilvy as a genius

'Ogilvy on Advertising' is David Ogilvy's career memoir full of his favorite copywriting advice

Ogilvy is one of the most famous and influential advertising executives in history, known for his focus on research-driven advertising. But he also wrote multiple books, including "Ogilvy on Advertising," which the Founders podcast dives into in this episode.

David Ogilvy’s brother helped get him into the advertising business

Ogilvy sent a copy of his stove sales manual, "The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker" (which Fortune magazine later called "probably the best sales manual ever written”) to his brother, who was working at London ad agency Mather & Crowther at the time.

‘The consumer isn't a moron, she's your wife’ is among David Ogilvy’s most memorable pieces of advertising advice

Some of David Ogilvy’s maxims include, “talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels” and “never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read.”

David Ogilvy once worked for the man who created the Gallup Poll

In 1938, when Ogilvy came to the United States, he started working for George Gallup’s Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. He took his learnings with him through the rest of his career, including during World War II, when Ogilvy worked with the Intelligence Service at the British Embassy in Washington.

Scroll through a 75-year timeline of Ogilvy’s iconic ads

From the brilliant Rolls-Royce slogan that David Ogilvy wrote himself (“at 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”) to Dove’s early 2000s campaign for Real Beauty, these 75 ads are among the best in advertising agency Ogilvy’s history.

David Ogilvy once called WPP Founder Martin Sorrell ‘odious’

WPP acquired Ogilvy & Mather, David Ogilvy’s agency, in 1989. Ogilvy later offered Sorrell a rare apology letter, which Sorrell kept framed in his office.

Ogilvy & Mather rebranded to just ‘Ogilvy’ in 2018

This was far from the first brand evolution the agency itself has gone through in its more than century-long history. The agency now known as “Ogilvy” started as a London advertising agency founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather. By 1964, it became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy.

Advertising holding company WPP acquired Ogilvy & Mather in 1989 for $864M

It was the largest amount ever paid for an agency at the time. WPP, which acquired agency J. Walter Thompson for $566M just two years before the Ogilvy & Mather acquisition, still owns Ogilvy today.

One of Warren Buffett’s investing principles is investing in well-managed companies

The "Founders" podcast reviews biographies of the world’s top entrepreneurs, and this episode explores a 2012 book about Warren Buffett. The episode includes Buffett's advice on becoming a better business manager and investor.

David Ogilvy died at his chateau in France in 1999

Ogilvy purchased Chateau de Touffou in 1973 and would go on to host hundreds of Ogilvy & Mather staffers there over the years. Some say that Ogilvy was eager to take his agency public in part so he would have more money to purchase the chateau.

David Ogilvy resigned the Rolls-Royce account after dissatisfaction with its cars

Ogilvy said that he only advertised products he believed in and would personally use. Despite his famous copywriting for Rolls-Royce (“at 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”), he resigned the account when he lost confidence in the brand’s newer cars’ quality.

In one of Ogilvy’s most well-known ads, he put an eyepatch on the ad’s star for ‘story appeal’

A 1951 campaign for men’s clothing brand Hathaway’s shirts featuring a distinguished man … wearing an eyepatch. Ogilvy has said he added it for “story appeal,” the idea that an ad should make viewers want to know the full story. The campaign ran for more than a decade. Ogilvy explains story appeal and more of his creative principles in this video.

Ogilvy won the Shell account with a last-minute flight from New York to London

When Shell was searching for a new ad agency, David Ogilvy filled out the pitch questionnaire himself, planning to hand-deliver it to Shell’s President in New York. When he found out that the president was in London, Ogilvy hopped on a flight. This newsletter edition tells the full story of how Ogilvy’s grit and determination won Ogilvy & Mather the coveted Shell account.

Explore a website dedicated to reviewing books about the advertising industry

“The Agency Review” reviews any book that touches advertising—from straight business books by the likes of David Ogilvy to a book about the history of bourbon. It has reviewed more than 200 books since the site started in 2012.

Warren Buffett first started investing in Geico in 1951

Buffett is known for his large collection of insurance investments, and Geico is no exception. This is partly due to investments from his mentor Benjamin Graham and a private, impromptu meeting with the company’s future CEO.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Warren Buffett was famously anti-tech stock during the 1990s dot-com boom

Buffett said that tech is something that Berkshire Hathaway doesn't "understand, so we don't invest in it." This philosophy led him not to invest in Yahoo or Microsoft during this time. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Was Dalí an artistic genius or a marketing whiz?

Punk poet John Cooper Clarke and art historian Professor Dawn Ades explore Dalí's enthralling life and decipher whether he was an artistic genius, a marketing genius, or both. Listen to the full podcast here.

How Walt Disney's life impacted his business

Walt Disney has a legacy of ingenious innovation and undying creativity. This podcast walks listeners chronologically through the major events of his life, as reported in Neal Gabler's biography "Walt Disney: the Triumph of the American Imagination," and explains how they led to his groundbreaking work in film, storytelling, and business.

Beat Generation iconoclast William S. Burroughs once appeared in a Nike ad

Following the rise of grunge in 1991, major corporations sought to capitalize on the changing cultural tide by using "authentic" voices to bolster their brands. One of them was Beat writer William S. Burroughs, known for his iconoclastic novels "Naked Lunch" and "Junky," who appeared in a 1994 Nike ad, singing the praises of "the coming of the new technology."

The Big Three consulting firms are McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company

Some also refer to this group as “MBB.” As a nearly century-old company that’s well known for its prestige, McKinsey has some famous alumni—including Chelsea Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg. The other two consulting firms in the Big Three have employed some famous faces over the years, too.

Read about the 'gatekeeper' of the stock market, former index chair at S&P Global

David Blitzer, the former index chair at S&P Global, earned the nickname "gatekeeper" of the stock market after helping decide which companies made it into the S&P 500 for 24 years. Blitzer became a legend in the world of indexing and has a reputation for being even-tempered and always wearing a bow tie.

Jeff Bezos has an art collection worth hundreds of millions

The collection includes an oil painting by Pablo Picasso that was once part of Picasso's personal collection. Bezos purchased the painting in a 2023 Sotheby's auction.

See the legendary live feud between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over Herbalife

In 2013, the two fought on live television in what may be one of the most-watched business television segments of all time. At one point, Icahn called Ackman a "liar" and a "crybaby," while Ackman told Icahn he was a dishonest guy.

Listen to the official weekly podcast of Davos

Produced by the World Economic Forum, "Radio Davos" is the forum's weekly podcast, featuring interviews with global leaders, policymakers, executives, and thinkers on issues ranging from climate change and inequality to technology, work, and geopolitics.

How the Beatles became the most influential band on Earth

Beatles geek and comedian Conan O'Brien is a special guest with the Rest is History podcast in this exploration of the quartet from Liverpool's mammoth role in global pop culture. The two-part podcast was recorded in Abbey Road Studios, the world's first dedicated recording facility, where the band recorded 190 of its 210 songs.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.