Sir, - Your obituary of the advertising legend David Ogilvy (August 14th) must have made him turn in his newly-made grave. The statement that he was "passionate in his objection to the notion of creativity in advertising, saying that people do not buy from clowns" is inaccurate on two counts.
Firstly, Ogilvy was a passionate and lifelong champion of creativity in advertising. Secondly, the quote about the clowns is in fact from Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins (1923). While Ogilvy was a great admirer of Hopkins's book (he claimed it had changed the course of his life and should be read seven times), he rejected this very claim regarding the use of humour in his own Ogilvy on Advertising (1983).
And rightly so. Had Hopkins lived to see the advent and rise of television and the new media, not to mention Ronald McDonald, he might have changed his mind and agreed with the late Mr Ogilvy. - Yours, etc.,
Eoghan Nolan, Joint Creative Director, McCann-Erikson Dublin, Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.