ThoughtSpurs

Last week I delivered a lecture to my Massey University class based on chapter 2 of David Ogilvy's 1983 book Ogilvy on Advertising - How to create advertising that sells. It had struck me that, while the references to early figures in advertising seemed quaint, the core of the conversation remained as pertinent today as they were back when Ogilvy was active. His references to the practices of 'direct marketing' could easily be updated to read 'Internet marketing' (or some other all embracing term). One of the most obvious pieces of advice that Ogilvy dispenses with curmudgeonly charm is that, when creating ads, there is no substitute for doing your homework. He talks about his disdain for the word creativity (and says it did not appear anywhere in his 18 volume set of the Oxford Dictionary). For him creativity was simply the work to be done between receiving the brief and the deadline for presenting it. I suppose that is a fair description. The term 'creativity...