Confessions of an Advertising Man

While not as detailed or colorfully illustrated as his later work "Ogilvy on Advertsing," this is still a classic fillld with great information. The book is clearly a precursor to "Ogilvy on Advertising," as many of the same elements can be found in it.

Ogilvy has a wonderfully casual, yet occassionally pompous, style to his writing, but he clearly knows and understands advertising. He manages that rare combination of managing to teach while entertaining. Sometimes his ego and pride come across too strongly, but given the man's accomplishments, I'll cut him slack. And you may wonder why he starts off discussing his days as a chef in Paris, but he does a great job of analogizing that experience to his experiences with running an ad agency.

Highly recommended for anyone involved in advertising, particularly copywriters. Ogilvy was a copywriter and he clearly has a special admiration for those who write copy for a living. He also has great advice to share for anyone in advertising.