Cancer Fund Street Advert

“Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.”

- David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising (1985).

David Ogilvy has often been called the “Father of Advertising”. He understood that advertising was necessary in our world, where business success depends on communicating messages to the public.

“I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.”

Paul Arden, creative genius behind many of the world’s best known ads, argues that advertising has a useful function:

“We are all advertising, all of the time. If you want to sell your car, what do you do? You clean and polish it and make it the best you can. Some people bake bread when they are trying to sell their house because the smell adds a friendly feeling. Even the priest, with all his or her fervour, is advertising God. Everybody is selling. It’s part of trade, barter, dealing and negotiating – it’s a part of life.”