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Article: FROM FAILED FARMER TO ADVERTISING LEGEND, DAVID OGILVY NEVER EASED UP IN HIS PURSUIT OF THE 'BIG IDEA'.
- Article from:
- Advertising Age
- Article date:
- September 21, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fifty years ago, David Ogilvy moved with his wife and son to New York City from Lancaster County in Pennsylvania's Amish country, where he had sold his failed tobacco farm. With "no credentials, no clients and only $6,000 in the bank," he would open an advertising agency.
In carrying out this decision, made in his late 30s, he discovered himself. And during the next three years, Madison Avenue also discovered him. David Ogilvy's genius as a copywriter would propel him to the front ranks of the advertising business.
His qualifications? They could hardly be gleaned from the career drift he had fallen into following his expulsion in 1931 from Oxford's Christ ...