The agency that would become Ogilvy & Mather got its start in London in 1850 when Edmund

Charles Mather began an advertising agency on Fleet Street, the traditional location and
current metonym of the British newspaper industry.[1] After Edmund's death in 1886, his son, Harley
Lawrence Mather, partnered with Herbert Oakes Crowther and the agency became known as Mather
& Crowther.[2] The agency pioneered newspaper advertising, which was in its infancy due to a
loosening of tax restrictions. Mather & Crowther educated manufacturers about the efficacy of
advertising and also produced "how-to" manuals for the nascent advertising industry.[2] The company
grew in prominence in the 1920s after creating leading non-branded advertising campaigns such as
"an apple a day keeps the doctor away" and "Drinka Pinta Milka Day". [2][3]
In 1921, Mather & Crowther hired Francis Ogilvy as a copywriter. Ogilvy eventually became the first
non-family member to chair the agency. When the agency launched the Aga cooker, a Swedish cook
stove, Francis composed letters in Greek to appeal to British public schools, the appliance's best
sales leads. Francis also helped his younger brother, David Ogilvy, secure a position as an Aga
salesman.[4] The younger Ogilvy was so successful at selling the cooker, he wrote a sales manual for
the company in 1935 called "The Theory and Practice of Selling the Aga Cooker". It was later called
"probably the best sales manual ever written" by Fortune magazine.[5]
David Ogilvy sent the manual to Francis who was persuaded to hire him as a trainee. Ogilvy began
studying advertising, particularly campaigns from America, which he viewed as the gold standard.
[6]
In 1938, David Ogilvy convinced Francis to send him to the United States on sabbatical to study
American advertising.[7] After a year, Ogilvy presented 32 "basic rules of good advertising" to Mather
& Crowther.[8] Over the next ten years, Ogilvy worked in research at the Gallup polling company,
worked for British Intelligence during World War II, then spent a few years farming among
the Amish community in Pennsylvania.[7]
In 1948, David Ogilvy proposed that Mather & Crowther and another U.K. agency, S.H. Benson,
partner to create an American advertising agency in New York City to support British advertising
clients. The agencies each invested US$40,000 in the venture, but insisted Ogilvy find a more
experienced American to run it. David Ogilvy recruited Anderson Hewitt from J. Walter Thompson to
serve as president and run sales. Ogilvy would serve as secretary, treasurer, and research director.
Along with their British sponsors, which held controlling interest, Hewitt mortgaged his house and
invested $14,000 in the agency and Ogilvy invested $6,000. [9][10]

Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather[edit]

On September 23, 1948, David Ogilvy opened his United States shop as Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, &
Mather on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.[11] Initially, Mather & Crowther and S.H. Benson gave the
agency four clients that were relatively unknown in the United States and had small budgets,
including Wedgwood China, British South African Airways, Guinness, and Bovril.[12]
The agency's first account was securing magazine advertising space for Wedgwood. [10] It had its first
successful ad with Ogilvy's concept "The Guinness Guide to Oysters", which was followed by
several other similar food and Guinness pairing guides.[13] Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather's first
large client was Sunoco (then called Sun Oil), procured by Hewitt in February 1949.[11] Helena
Rubinstein cosmetics was the first client won by Ogilvy.[14]
A breakthrough came after the agency was approached by Maine-based shirt manufacturer C. F.
Hathaway Company. The company only had a small budget, but its president promised to "never
change a word of copy."[15] In 1951, Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather introduced the "The man in the
Hathaway shirt" campaign. The advertisement featured an aristocratic man in an eyepatch that
Ogilvy purchased on the way to the ad's photo shoot. C. F. Hathaway Company sold out of shirts
within a week of the first ad's printing. The campaign increased the shirt maker's sales by 160
percent, resulted in new business for Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather, and turned the recognizable
"Hathaway Man" and his eyepatch into a popular cultural trope.[7][16]
In 1952, the agency launched a campaign for Schweppes using the beverage maker's United States
president, Edward Whitehead, as company spokesman "Commander Whitehead". [10][17] The campaign
increased sales by 600 percent in six months and grew from a single ad to a TV campaign that
lasted through the 1960s.[17] That same year, Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather produced the "Come
to Britain" campaign for the British Tourist Authority, which led to Britain rising from the fifth to first
American tourist destination.[13]

Ogilvy, Benson & Mather[edit]

Disagreements between Hewitt and Ogilvy, particularly about creative direction and who should run
the agency, resulted in Ogilvy's resignation in 1953. [11] The agency's backers supported Ogilvy,
leading to Hewitt's resignation and the agency reopening as Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in 1954.
Ogilvy hired retired Benton & Bowles executive Esty Stowell in 1956 to handle operations and non-
creative functions.[18]
During the 1950s, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather became known for its successful campaigns, which
David Ogilvy called "Big ideas". The agency, mainly through Ogilvy's creative direction, built a
reputation for "quality" advertising, which was defined by its use of well-researched "long copy",
large photographs, and clean layouts and typography. Ogilvy believed advertising's purpose was to
sell through information and persuasion, as opposed to entertain. [7][19]
In 1955, Ogilvy created the Dove campaign "Dove is one-quarter cleansing creamIt creams your
skin while you wash" after learning one of the bar's ingredients was also used in cold cream.[20] In
1956, the agency invented "Titus Moody" for Pepperidge Farm, a character which appeared in their
commercials until the 1980s.[7][21] Ogilvy also helped change the perception of Puerto Rico and
increase tourism through campaigns in the 1950s.[7][10]
Ogilvy produced one of the agency's most iconic ads for car manufacturer Rolls-Royce in 1960 with
the headline "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric
clock."[7] Ogilvy borrowed the headline from an old article he came across while researching the
company. The rest of the copy included 11 engineering advantages of the vehicle. After it was
printed, the ad was praised by other advertisers, and Ogilvy considered it his favorite. [18][22]
That same year, the agency nearly doubled in size and brought on John "Jock" Elliott as an
executive after winning the Shell Oil account.[23] The agency agreed to work for Sh