Review of 'Confessions of an advertising man' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Quite a man David Ogilvy must’ve been. His knowledge of the craft and business of advertising is genuinely impressive. I’m equally impressed by his frankness in these short chapters, they contain true confessions of a sort. I can imagine some of these confessions caused quite the stir back in the day.
Then again: he was an advertising man, he probably knew to a tee how he was positioning himself while writing these confessions.
Either way, they contain some perennial advertising wisdoms, but simultaneously some of his writings and advices feel very dated, due to how the media (and accordingly the ad business) has evolved throughout the decades.
So yeah, definitely read it if you’re a designer or advertising professional. You’ll see how a lot of unwritten rules in advertising and graphic design find their origin in Ogilvy’s creative ethos. It’s also a nice throwback to American business life in the …
Quite a man David Ogilvy must’ve been. His knowledge of the craft and business of advertising is genuinely impressive. I’m equally impressed by his frankness in these short chapters, they contain true confessions of a sort. I can imagine some of these confessions caused quite the stir back in the day.
Then again: he was an advertising man, he probably knew to a tee how he was positioning himself while writing these confessions.
Either way, they contain some perennial advertising wisdoms, but simultaneously some of his writings and advices feel very dated, due to how the media (and accordingly the ad business) has evolved throughout the decades.
So yeah, definitely read it if you’re a designer or advertising professional. You’ll see how a lot of unwritten rules in advertising and graphic design find their origin in Ogilvy’s creative ethos. It’s also a nice throwback to American business life in the previous century. On the other hand: don’t expect to find your holy grail here. It’s not going to provide you that much-coveted enlightenment, as too much of what Ogilvy wrote down has become commonplace nowadays.
