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Famous Ads by Ogilvy While Ogilvy oversaw many successful accounts during
his time at Ogilvy & Mather, there are a few earlier accounts that put
Ogilvy on the map in the world of advertising. These accounts helped Ogilvy launch his agency
to the forefront of advertising and truly showed his genius at writing
copy. Ogilvy states in his
autobiography: Dr. Gallup
had taught me what he had discovered about the factors which make
advertisements succeed or
fail. Rosser Reeves had taught me what
he had learned from disciples of Claude Hopkins...When
I put this knowledge to use, and added a pinch of imagination, I was able to produce a
series of campaigns which, almost overnight, made Ogilvy & Mather
famous...They made Ogilvy &
Mather so hot that getting clients was like shooting fish in a barrel. |
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Ogilvy was able to take a simple product such as
quinine water and turn it into a major success. He did so by placing his friend, and
Schweppes owner, Commander Whitehead into the advertisements for the company. Named “Ambassador from Schweppes”, Whitehead was a
walking caricature of the dignified British Commander. In this “cheerfully
Shavian figure in tweed and full Van Dyke beard, Ogilvy found both a fast
friend an audacious new way to leverage his national heritage.” Commander Whitehead became the living
embodiment of “schweppervescence”, which also characterized the product. |
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With the success of the Schweppes campaign,
Ogilvy decided to continue with the aristocratic tradition by employing Baron
Wrangell for the sales of the Hathaway shirt.
Never mind that this successful ad was the 18th that Ogilvy approached
the company with. “The man in the Hathaway shirt” proved an instant success for a company that had
spent 116 years not selling shirts.
The man with the patch added instant mystery to the product and drew
the imagination of the reader to wild places.
This character also started a landslide of
other advertisements using similar characters in an attempt to boost sales
for a multitude of products.
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