Marketing Meditations / Ep. 3

Your CEO might be tired of your campaign, but your buyers aren't.

David Ogilvy on staying power and the case against committees

November 10, 2026 · 22 chapters

David Ogilvy's eye patch campaign for Hathaway shirts ran for 21 years, and his Dove soap campaign had run for 31 when he wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man. In this episode, I read passages from the book on keeping a winning campaign running and keeping committees away from the writing. I translate each into something you can use in your work today.

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What's inside the playbook

  • A keep-or-replace scorecard for any campaign someone wants to change
  • An approval and draft audit for work that has been through too many hands

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Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy: Amazon