David Ogilvy (1911-1999) is often called “the father of advertising”. As Ogilvy & Mather’s bio recaps, he came to the US via his European roots in 1938 and worked for Gallup’s Audience Research Institute, which shaped his research-focused strategic thinking. A decade later, even though he hadn’t yet penned a single ad, he opened Ogilvy, Benson & Mather.
Ogilvy went on to produce an astounding array of work for some of the biggest clients around—Lever, Shell, Sears, Rolls-Royce, American Express—and shaped the agency into one of the world’s most prominent. Ogilvy believed in The Big Idea. Without The Big Idea, a campaign will come and go “like a ship in the night”, wasting the audience’s time and the advertiser’s money. For his efforts, he was inducted into the US Advertising Hall of Fame in 1977.
When we “go to the well”, Muse often looks to Ogilvy for guidance and inspiration. We believe in The Big Idea.
