Currently, I’m reading a biography about David Ogilvy called “King Of Madison Avenue.”
And, it’s quite the fascinating read.
One of my favorite parts is when it talks about how Ogilvy (an atheist) was a big fan of how the Catholic Church is structured, and how he based his ad agency’s structure on a lot of the same principles the church uses.
(Even going so far as to call himself “The Holy Spook”.)
Another thing that stood out:
Ogilvy was one of the best trolls in the advertising business.
This guy trolled everyone.
He’d troll friends, family, employees, clients (telling them things like “don’t buy a dog if you’re just going to bark yourself” or “if you want monkeys, pay peanuts”), his spouses (one time he knew his wife had been busting her butt all day cooking for him, just for him to fix himself a bowl of grape nuts cereal instead of eating the meal…), and even himself.
More:
I don’t know if he used trolling in his advertising.
But, I wonder if he were alive now, especially with social media and memes, if he wouldn’t use trolling in his advertising to the hilt. Especially since one of the big principles he lived by was to always tell the truth in advertising, but make sure you always make the truth interesting.
And few things can make the truth more interesting than trolling.
That is, if done right.
(Hardly anyone does it right, if at all, in their emails or other ads.)
Enter the April “Email Players” issue.
Much of it is showing examples (easily modeled — not copied and pasted — or used as inspiration with a little thinking and application) of profitable trolling via different advertising media (i.e. sales letter, email, press release, facebook, twitter, etc).
This issue goes to the printer in a few short days.
To get it, you have to be subscribed before I send it to the printer.
After that, too late.
Here’s the link:
Ben Settle
