Interesting Thing About David Ogilvy's and One Of His Most Famous Headlines

[fasteasysuccess]

Something I read today that was very interesting.

David Ogilvy's ad to sell Rolls Royce cars is pretty famous. If not familiar it's...


At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock


but actually in the ad there's a comment from the technical editor of Motor Magazine said "'At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise comes from the electric clock,' reports the Technical Editor of THE
Motor magazine.

So the guy at the magazine really wrote Ogilvy's headline but made him famous for it.

He knew that would get into his target market and used it.

But it's not done because it went on to say that As Robert Rosenthal reports on his blog, a variation of the headline first appeared in 1933 in an ad to sell Pierce-Arrow automobiles.

The headline
reads...

"The only sound one can hear in the new Pierce-Arrows is the ticking of the electric clock"

So I guess we won't know if that was the influence in 1958 the time of the ad, but sounds pretty close.

Anyways I think a huge lesson is that there is tons of things that are already done, we don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Also if something worked at one time it can work now.

[Mr. Subtle]

Originally Posted by fasteasysuccess

David Ogilvy's ad to sell Rolls Royce cars is pretty famous. If not familiar it's...

At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock

Anyways I think a huge lesson is that there is tons of things that are already done, we don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Also if something worked at one time it can work now.

Yeah, I can see Toyota jumpin' on the Ogilvy bandwagon any day now...

.

[fasteasysuccess]

thats funny you should pitch that idea to toyota.

[Michael Newman]

Mr Subtle,
Your post was not subtle,it was brilliant and funny.
Interesting.

Alaba

[The Copy Nazi]

Originally Posted by Mr. Subtle

Yeah, I can see Toyota jumpin' on the Ogilvy bandwagon any day now...

.

May I suggest one small copy change?

At 60 miles an hour
the loudest noise in
this new Prius
comes from the
driver's scream...
because
he can't f*cking stop!

[Loren Woirhaye]

That headline was swiped from a Clyde Bedell
ad from the 1930s.

I have a magazine my girlfriend picked up with
the ad in it. She deals in vintage ephemera,
which is good for me because I get to look at the
crazy old ads.

As I recall the ad was for DeSoto. I'll have to
find it and post a swipe of it. It's a really
fabulous ad.

Drayton Bird mentioned recently in a blog post that
the famous Ogilvy headline was swiped. He worked
with Ogilvy for many years, closely.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Hey, check this out:

Pierce-Arrow Advertising Art

[Johnny12345]

Originally Posted by fasteasysuccess

At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock

This is quite probably my favorite headline of all time. But Subtle's version isn't bad either.

Johnny

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

That headline was swiped from a Clyde Bedell ad from the 1930s.

I have a magazine my girlfriend picked up with the ad in it.

Wow, you really do like older women, then ...

[shamoonak1]

Love the headline!

Similar stuff goes on in the music industry every other day.. one singer sings a song.. another singer makes it famous with their own version

[The Copy Nazi]

For Subtle - Print ad from a Danish Garage Door Company - Reads "20% OFF ALL GARAGEDOORS *Toyota Owners Only"

[Rezbi]

Originally Posted by fasteasysuccess

but actually in the ad there's a comment from the technical editor of Motor Magazine said "'At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise comes from the electric clock,' reports the Technical Editor of THE
Motor magazine.

So the guy at the magazine really wrote Ogilvy's headline but made him famous for it.

If you read his book, Ogilvy on Advertising, you'd see he actually had this to say:

"When I got the Rolls Royce account, I sprent three weeks reading about the car and came across a statement that 'at sixty miles an hour, the loudest noise comes from the electric clock'. This became the headline, and it was followed by 607 words of factual copy."

That's a direct quote from his book.

Intelligence isn't about knowing everything. It's also about studying what's necessary, and knowing what to look for, and where.

[Raydal]

I have a pet peeve when it comes to copywriting: I see many people
would say, "According to "X" blah, blah, blah ..." when the person
they are quoting was far from the original copywriter who used that
technique or said it 'first'.

But if that was the first time they heard the idea I guess I can't blame
them too much, but some young copywriters do get some credit they
don't deserve. It's always good to study the classics.

-Ray Edwards