Such bold assertions from a wet-behind-the-ears 25-year-old may have irked his colleagues, but the young Ogilvy was already developing the theses that were to underpin his success. “Concrete figures must be substituted for atmospheric claims clichés must give way to facts, and empty exhortations to alluring offers,” an enthusiastic Ogilvy wrote in a presentation to his colleagues in the early 1930s. Very early on he began to develop his own theories about advertising. Ogilvy displayed a natural aptitude for his new vocation. His winning way with words earned him a place as a trainee at the agency. Ogilvy sent his manuscript, “The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA cooker”, to his brother who was working at London-based advertising agency Mather & Crowther.
So much so that he was asked to write a manual on how to sell the cooker for the AGA sales force (thirty years later the editors of Fortune magazine announced that it was probably the best sales manual of all time). As a salesman Ogilvy proved a great success. When Ogilvy had tired of la vie Parisienne he returned to England to sell a new type of cooking stove, the AGA. His first assignment was to prepare meals for customers’ dogs. In France, he worked in the kitchens of the Hotel Majestic. When he left university, the young Ogilvy sought adventure, trading the Cotswold stone of the Oxford colleges for the boulevards of Paris. What Ogilvy lacked in natural academic ability he made up for in scholarly application, securing a scholarship to study history at Christ Church College, Oxford University. Despite the family’s reduced financial circumstances Ogilvy was dispatched to Fettes School, a prestigious private school near Edinburgh, Scotland. He was destined for a privileged upbringing until his father met financial ruin following the outbreak of World War I. The son of a stockbroker, David Ogilvy was born in 1911. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Oglivy, Crown, 1983. Resources Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Oglivy, Atheneum, 1963 Blood, Brains & Beer by David Oglivy, Atheneum, 1978.
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