The Death of Good Advertising: If David Ogilvy Could See Us Now

“Quick! Mute it! Mute it now!”

Bob and I both scrambled for the remote, and he managed to hit the mute button just before my seething rant could start up again. “I can’t stand that commercial,” I said for the bo-billionth time. And he agrees with me.

There are no good TV commercials anymore. One could argue that there never were any good TV commercials. But I think we can all agree that there was a time when television commercials were effective—sometimes even funny—and possibly even worth the money the brand spent on their creation and placement. Not anymore.

David Ogilvy, where are you when we need you?

David Ogilvy was considered the “pope of modern advertising” and his New York agency rocked the ad world in the 50s, 60s, and 70s with campaigns for clients like Rolls-Royce, Schweppes, American Express, Guinness, and Dove. Ogilvy and Mather was one of the most famous ad agencies in the world. So, of course, fledgling ad copywriters soaked up every bit of wisdom they could from the legend. What he was doing was working, and everyone wanted in.

Ogilvy had a short list of advertising “laws” that were not to be broken. This list included things like:

• The Purpose of Advertising is to Sell—Creativity should serve this purpose, nothing else (Creativity for the sake of creativity belongs in an art gallery.)

• Know Your Product and Audience—Who is this for? What do they need? How does this meet those needs?

• Big Ideas are Essential—A powerful concept that captures the attention of the target audience is the “big idea.” Note: It’s not just what the copywriter thinks is clever.

• Highlight the Unique Selling Proposition—If you don’t nail down what makes this product different and better, you just wasted 30 seconds of airtime.

• Avoid Puffery and Vagueness—Be specific. Present facts. Consumers won’t fill in the blanks the way you want them to.

There were more, but these are some of the key laws of advertising that Ogilvy and his contemporaries lived and died by.

But the established ways of doing things are no longer in fashion. What was tried-and-true for advertising execs now seems old-fashioned and formulaic to young writers today.

So now, in true old-school creative director fashion, I’m going to rip to shreds some current TV ads and send the teams back to the drawing board. (Okay, I am not that hard-boiled but dang, it sounded good.) Let’s take a look at some of these recent disasters and see how many of Ogilvy’s rules they’ve managed to break (yeah, it’s all of them).

Liberty Mutual Wax Figure — The Ego That Doesn’t Make Sense

The premise of the spot is that an egotistical guy (for some reason channeling Don Johnson from Miami Vice) has saved so much money on his insurance that he could afford a wax figure of himself. I dare the creators to say this out loud: Nobody, and I mean nobody, considers a wax figure of themselves a status symbol.

Ogilvy would have destroyed this ad. He said, “What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.” The creative team may have been trying to say, “You will save so much money you can afford to splurge on silly things,” but there are a hundred better ways to sell that concept. The wax figure joke is pointless and irrelevant.

But the real issue isn’t just that the joke doesn’t land, it’s that the concept is completely disconnected from the real world, real people, and their needs.

Don’t be Passive Progressive—An Ad that Insults Its Own Audience

This campaign features characters who are rude, sarcastic, and bitter—jealous of the money others saved by switching to Progressive. And here’s where it gets frustrating: we’re supposed to identify with these jerks. The campaign tries to shame us into choosing Progressive because, if we don’t, we’re mean-spirited and petty people.

Ogilvy famously said, “The customer is not a moron, she’s your wife.” This ad doesn’t talk to the viewer, it talks at them. Instead of making us feel smart and savvy for choosing Progressive, it forces us to identify with the bitter, passive-aggressive jerks who didn’t—and cringe in the process.

I can’t stop imagining the brainstorming sessions behind this campaign. After hours of spitballing, one person probably said, “Hey, Progressive sounds like aggressive!” And then, boom—it was all downhill from there.

A Seal as Seal—Just as Cringy as it Sounds

This may be blasphemy since it was a Super Bowl ad, but the Seal-as-Seal commercial was straight-up nightmare fuel for me. But beyond the personal horror of that disgusting CGI Seal, there’s a bigger issue here: this is exactly the kind of ad that Ogilvy would have canned before it cost his client a boatload of money (and maybe some credibility).

I’ll admit—I had to look up what product the Seal seal was trying to sell (it was Mountain Dew). That alone breaks a few of Ogilvy’s golden rules. When the audience is distracted by how something looks—creepy or not—they’re not focused on the brand or message. Execution fail. In Ogilvy’s words, “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” People may remember the ad, sure, but what’s the takeaway? Drink more Mountain Dew? That's a stretch.

Whole Body Deodorant (They All Smell Bad)

I can’t imagine any agency willingly taking on a whole-body deodorant client in today’s culture—or, if they already have one, fully committing to this trend. It seems like these ads are trying too hard to be edgy and unexpected (hello, “private parts” jokes) while missing the fundamental principles of good advertising. There’s no clear unique selling proposition—not stinging your mommy parts feels more like a baseline expectation than a selling point.

Also, where’s the target audience? The client would probably say, “Anyone with sweat glands!” But that’s not a strategy. And let’s talk about the forced humor—it’s standing in for creativity (see: private parts).

All of these ads stink. Not only do they tell us we’re disgusting and smelly, but they don’t give us any reason to actually want the product. These ads break Ogilvy’s rule of “don’t insult your audience.”

Back to the Basics (I Beg of You)

I know how much advertising has evolved over the last 30 years. While there’s still plenty of Big Agency Creative out there, we also live in a time where self-generated ad content is booming. It’s easier than ever for small companies to create their own advertising and save money—and I think that’s great. But whether a TV spot comes from a large ad agency or someone's personal Canva account, I am begging you to get back to the basics of solid, effective ad copywriting.

Read Ogilvy on Advertising. Read A Big Life (In Advertising) by Mary Wells Lawrence. You don’t need a time machine or a Mad Men binge session, but I promise you’ll pick up lessons from these former giants that will change the way you think about your writing.

When I was writing for an agency, I spent a lot of time thinking about the end consumer—what they needed or wanted—and it usually boiled down to one thing: they want to be the heroes of their own lives. As consumers, we want to feel like we’ve made smart, thoughtful choices—and that the brands we trust acknowledge us as savvy decision-makers.

David Ogilvy believed in this (and so did his wife). Let’s get back to that.