Rating: 
Summary: Ogilvy: because advertising is all about passion
Review: David Ogilvy offers both a travel back in time at the root of advertising and talk about is own experience. He gives us good tips for beginning but most of all, Mr Ogilvy reminds us that advertsing is all about passion! Thank you Mr Ogilvy!
Rating: 
Summary: Opinionated, pithy, entertaining, informative
Review: David Ogilvy sums up his years of experience as an advertising legend in a dozen concise and amply illustrated chapters. Critics might be inclined to attack his opinions as dogmatic, and some of the ads he uses as examples appear corny and outdated today. On the other hand, so do the clothes and hairstyles in old movies, but it doesn't make them any less valuable as historical artifacts, or any less interesting. As for dogmatism, it's actually refreshing to get an unambiguous read on a profession that is by nature nebulous, and if anyone has a right to an opinion, he's the man. The chapter on print advertising contains enough densely packed information to allow an intelligent novice to design and write a creditable ad, and the book concludes with a series of short profiles of advertising pioneers such as Leo Burnett that are highly engrossing. Ogilvy's writing style is exemplary for anyone in the communications field: terse, forceful, devoid of hot air. Anyone interested in advertising, marketing, or public relations---or in David Ogilvy as a figure in his own right---will enjoy this classic.
Rating:
Summary: The way of thinking of THE advertising man
Review: Everybody in advertising know the reputation David Ogilvy. Everybody know his success. But with this book, everybody can see his way of thinking. By reading this book, I wouldn't say that Ogilvy was a charismatic writer. This book is a collection of thoughts and stories from Ogilvy's life. But, who advertising professional on earth wouldn't like to know these thoughts?
If you are seeking for solutions, for technics and "how tos", certainly you will not find these in this book. This book is about the philosophy of advertising. And if you master this philosophy, you can create ideas for today's and tomorrow's advertising. Highly recommended for advertising professionals.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable if a little dated
Review: Good overview of advertising and how it works. Somewhat out of date at this stage.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable if a little dated
Review: Good overview of advertising and how it works. Somewhat out of date at this stage.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't know your past...
Review: Great history of advertising reference. As for advertising in the year 2004, some of Ogilvy's "tried and true" methods do not ring true for modern times. For those learning about design and advertising, I feel this is a great read from a master. If you don't know your past, you can't know your future!
Rating:
Summary: The ad man's "Elements of Style"
Review: I have owned three copies of this book. I wore out the first one; it fell apart. The second one was stolen. The third one sits on the shelf of my office. And when I need a little inspiration, even a little reassurance that what I'm doing as an ad writer has a purpose, I go to this book. I equate it as the advertising equivalent to EB White's "Elements of Style." Granted, Ogilivy was a bleeding egomaniac, one of those eccentric types who believed what he believed and God forbid you should prove him different. But in this book, he does admit some mistakes he had made in his career regarding approaches and ideas. Still, a lot has changed in advertising since this book was published and I find myself looking at the ads inside for inspiration now, more than Ogilvy's somewhat self-serving commentary. Which is probably as it should be. Oh, that Bill Bernbach had written a book like this before he died!
Rating:
Summary: Must Read for Business People
Review: I think this was a great book and even though Mr. Ogilvy may toot his own horn a bit that's fine, he deserves to! I think that the people who should really read this book are the people who are going to walk into an advertising company and get some work done. Advertisers may know all these principles but they have to please their clients first. Some advertising agencies just don't care, the only person they really want to please is the client, not the client's clients. I've seem more business owners micromanage their advertising campaigns into a big disasterous flop than you can imagine. I doubt they will ever want to give up the right to micromanage the campaign, but if they are going to do it they should read this book first. I believe most advertisers have already read it.
Rating: 
Summary: No longer applies to the ad world today
Review: I think this was an interesting book for its
time, however the ideas set forth here
are no longer practiced by the company that
Ogilvy created.
Rating:
Summary: Too Bad His Company Doesn't Follow His Rules
Review: I understand and agree with Ogilvy's philosophy and he definitely was a man with a vision. Please, if you are thinking of getting into Advertising do not take this book as anything more than Theory. The Practice of the ad biz is a whole 'nother scary animal.
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