The Art of Writing Advertising

A 1965 collection of conversations with five of advertising's most influential figures: William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy, and Rosser Reeves. Each one talks about how they work, what they believe, and how they learned the craft.

Ogilvy listed The Art of Writing Advertising in the "Recommended Reading" appendix of Ogilvy on Advertising. The book is a primary-source document of how the great admen of the mid-century thought about their work in their own words.

For a founder, this is the closest thing to sitting in a room with five geniuses and asking each one, "How do you do it?" The answers are different — Bernbach championed the art of the idea, Reeves the science of the USP, Ogilvy the discipline of research — but together they form a complete picture of what persuasive communication requires.