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Ogilvy’s Life Despite his hard work at Mather & Crowther, Ogilvy
felt that it was time to move on.
“Why? Partly because I wanted
adventure. Partly because I figured
that the same effort in America would produce three times as much lucre in
America as in little England. Partly
because I wanted to prove that I could succeed on my own, without the
patronage of my brother” (Ogilvy, Blood…, 65). With these thoughts in mind, Ogilvy dropped
everything and sailed to America. After spending some time with the likes of Harpo Marx,
George and Bea Kaufman, and Ethel Barrymore, Ogilvy had “the luckiest break
of my life: Dr. George Gallup invited
me to join his organization in Princeton”.
Ogilvy later stated that working for the Gallup Poll is the best way
to learn about a group of people. “It
will teach you what the natives want out of life, what they think about the
main issues of the day, what their habits are” (Ogilvy, Blood…, 73). Ogilvy went on to apply Gallup’s polling
methods to the world of Hollywood. He
used the Gallup Poll to measure the popularity of stars, to pretest movie
stories, and to forecast trends in the industry. At this point, World War II was raging in Europe. Ogilvy’s next job title differed greatly
from his previous endeavors. His next
“opportunity came in the form of an invitation to join the staff of Sir
William Stephenson in the Secret Service” (Ogilvy, Blood…, 86). Ogilvy was put in charge of collecting
economic data from agents in Latin America.
“Our primary function was to ruin businessmen whom we knew to be
working against the Allies, and to prevent Hitler from laying his hands on
strategic materials” (Ogilvy, Blood…,
91). Ogilvy’s next adventure lead him to a rather
unsuspecting place, “a very large rural monastery” (Ogilvy, Blood…,
105). In June, 1940, Ogilvy noticed
the Pennsylvania Amish land from the window of a train. Within weeks, he and his wife returned with
their bicycles to learn more about the people and the land. They made fast friends with the families in
an Amish town called Intercourse, Pennsylvania. It was not until 1946, however, that they
were able to purchase a house in the town.
“Here we settled down to live, my wife and I with our four-year-old son,
surrounded by the Amish” (Ogilvy, Blood…, 112). For the next three years, the Ogilvy’s
lived and farmed with the Amish.
According to Ogilvy, The
years we spent in Lancaster County were the richest of my life. But it became apparent that I could never
earn my living as a farmer...I remembered how my grandfather had failed as a
farmer and become a successful businessman.
Why not follow in his footsteps?
Why not start an advertising agency? (Ogilvy, Blood…, 124) |