Ogilvy & Mather Marks Centennial of Founder’s Birth with Cannes Celebration

At sunrise on June 23rd, the longest red carpet ever seen in Cannes will be rolled out along the entire length of the Croissette, leading to the steps of the Grand Auditorium, where a giant billboard stating, “On this day, 100 years ago, David was born to inspire,” will commemorate the centenary.  After dark, all the lights along the boulevard will bathe the pavement in red, setting the mood for the agency’s celebration at Le Grand Hotel.

The company kicked off the celebration by challenging Ogilvy employees from around the globe to create a short video on the theme of inspiration to honour David’s lasting influence, with the grand prize to be Ogilvy’s on-the-ground bloggers at the festival www.ogilvy.com/contest “Turning red” and the theme of ‘inspiration’ is carried out through the official website where people are prompted to tweet “What inspires you?” to #do100, turning their Twitter avatar red and adding their message to thousands of others from around the world in a giant David Ogilvy mosaic.

One of the advertising industry’s most famous and lauded figures, David Ogilvy began his business career as a door-to-door salesman of Aga cookers in Scotland.  He founded his agency in 1948 with no clients and a staff of two, building it into an empire that was eventually acquired by WPP in 1989.  His books Ogilvy on Advertising and Confessions of an Advertising Man are among the most influential and widely-read publications concerning the industry.  His famous campaigns for Schweppes, Guinness, Rolls-Royce, among others, remain highly influential, and his legacy led him to be widely known as “The Father of Advertising”, as well as gaining him the honour of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).