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Do You Remember?

“At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise
in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the
electric clock”

Ogilvy & Mather’s ad campaign for Rolls-
Royce (1958-1962) is considered one of the
greatest advertisements ever written. Ogilvy
himself said it’s “the best headline I ever wrote.”
Speaking directly to wealthy, discerning car
owners, the campaign spells out the brand’s
many luxury features in a series of highlighted
sales points, including seats upholstered in eight
hides of English leather, a picnic table of French
walnut that slides out from underneath the dash
and from behind the front seats, a rear window
defroster, and the application of five layers of
primer paint—hand rubbed between each
coat—before the finishing coats are applied. In
its first year, this print ad campaign contributed
to a 50 percent increase in sales and helped to
elevate the Rolls-Royce brand to elite status
among buyers and those on the street watching a
Rolls-Royce drive by. Ogilvy, himself, owned At left: An iconic Ogilvy ad “The man in the Hathaway shirt”
and drove a Rolls-Royce. At right: “Schweppervescence in action,” the Commander suggests in this Ogilvy ad.

“The Man in the Hathaway Shirt”
consumer, a fallback to the insights into human behavior learned
One of Ogilvy’s most iconic creations, “The Man in the Hathaway during his tenure at Gallup. He believed a customer should be treated
Shirt,” built a mystique around a military-cut gentleman wearing a as intelligent, and famously coined the phrase, “The customer is not a
never-explained eye patch and sporting a crisp Hathaway shirt. moron, she’s your wife.” Quotes from his book Ogilvy on Advertising,
Hathaway was a small company at the time and couldn’t afford a large his autobiography, Confessions of an Advertising Man, and his other sage
advertising budget. The story goes that on his way to the photo shoot advice on what makes for good advertising are legendary; the Madison
for Hathaway’s print ads, Ogilvy spontaneously grabbed an eye patch, Avenue culture he created inside the walls of his agency, the nostalgia
supposedly inspired by a picture of public servant Lewis Douglas, who that drove the popularity of the television show, Mad Men.
had lost an eye in a fishing accident. They decided to include the patch Here are just a few of his insightful thoughts on advertising and
in the original print ad for the New Yorker. The day the ad ran, brand building:

Hathaway’s New York store sold out of shirts. The campaign portrayed • “I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do
“The Hathaway Man,” played by Baron George Wrangell, a Russian something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.”
aristocrat with 20/20 vision, as sophisticated and elegant with a lifetime
of interesting experiences. The ads provided the consumer with details • “What you say in advertising is more
about their shirts that helped to define and differentiate the brand from important than how you say it.”

other men’s shirt manufacturers. • “It isn’t the whiskey they choose, it’s
the image.”
“It’s mutiny to mix a Gin-and-Tonic without Schweppes!”
• “The more informative your advertising,
Ogilvy’s reputation as a master of product image was further enhanced the more persuasive it will be.”
in 1953 when he took over the account of • “Tell the truth but make the truth
Schweppes, a British manufacturer of quinine fascinating. You know you can’t bore people
water then struggling to gain a foothold in into buying your product, you can only
America. Ogilvy designed his print campaign interest them into buying it.”
around Commander Edward Whitehead, the
bearded and ever-so-British director of • “Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals,
Schweppes’ American builds brands.”
operations. In the 1950s, a beard was as exotic as Confessions of an
the Hathaway man’s eyepatch, which soon Advertising Man The Ogilvy Legacy
proved to be equally compelling as a sales device. by David Ogilvy, signed When David Ogily died in 1999
The premise of the campaign was Whitehead’s first edition, selling for at the age of 88, his contributions to
quest to make sure Schweppes Quinine water $1,500 at AbeBooks.com advertising and brand building were
carried its same original flavor here in America. well-recognized, and his exalted position as “The Father of
“A gin and tonic would not be the same without Advertising,” cemented.
Schweppes.” Within five years Schweppes was In his obituary, The New York Times credits Ogilvy with
selling over 30 million bottles a year. Blood Brains & Beer: The creating one of the biggest ad agencies in the world and helping
Autobiography of David Ogilvy. to alter the landscape of American advertising. “And while it
Ogilvy on Advertising A signed first edition sells for would be impossible to gauge the impact his campaigns had on
Ogilvy wrote his primer for marketers and between $900 and $1,400. sales, his work created many images that are well-known in
copywriters, Ogilvy on Advertising, in 1983 but households worldwide.
his observations for what makes a good and successful ad are as relevant “Though Mr. Ogilvy prided himself on perfecting the information-
today as ever. laden but painless print advertisements, he was perhaps even more
Ogilvy held that the function of advertising is to sell and that famous for finding the character or symbol that turned a product into
successful advertising for any product is based on information about its a brand, and a brand into a byword.”

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