The Marketing Agency Talk

To advertisers: “Do not compete with your agency in the creative area. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?”

David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 68.

This is a good one from the great man.

I’m just thinking if I have the guts to repeat these words to clients who tried to hold our designers’ hands to create their advertisements.

There were times I really, really wanted to give them a piece of my mind but I just bit my tongue and be nice. And I didn’t feel nice at all.

My ex-boss always said we should be cool and civil even though the client is a perfect bitch with sharp claws. It’s business, it’s not personal.

If I dislike client interfering into areas they were not familiar with, can you imagine how the creative folks feel? I couldn’t even imagine.