“First name?” says the man.

He’s sat behind a computer. I can’t see his screen. His name tag says RICK in bold, blue letters.

“Eddie,” I say, “with an ‘I-E’ at the end.”

“Oh-kay, and your last name?”

I spell my last name.

“Address?”

I say my address.

“Thank you,” Rick says, looking up. “Your library card will take a few minutes to print, so feel free to pick out some books in the meantime.”

“Great, thanks—” I say, “and where would the advertising books be?”

Rick cocks his head. “Upstairs,” he says. “Back-left, if memory serves,” he puts his glasses back on. “You like advertising?”

I smile.

“Me, too,” Rick says. “I was a copywriter once.”

“Oh, yeh?”

“A long time ago,” he says. “Ever hear of this guy, Ogilvy? David oh-gil-vee?”

“Oh, sure.”

“Ah, have you seen this video—” he looks back at his screen. “It’s on YouTube—” he moves his mouse and pecks the keyboard. “It’s an interview—” he turns the monitor so I can see. “It’s called A Conversation About Advertising with David Ogilvy. Have you see this one?”

I purse my lips and shake my head. He throws his hands up and leans back in his chair. “It’s fantastic,” he says, “just fantastic — especially the very end.”

At the very end, the interviewer, someone named John Crichton, asked Ogilvy a question:

“Have you any advice to offer young creative people on how to create good advertising?”

“Advice?” said Ogilvy. “I can talk for hours on this subject.” But he didn’t. Instead he talked for only a couple minutes about three salient points:

1/ Compete with the immortals:

“Be more ambitious,” said Ogilvy. “When you get a job to do a storyboard or an ad, try to hit the ball out of the park every time. Don’t bunt. Compete with the immortals. If you’re going to do an automobile campaign, try to make it the greatest automobile campaign that any agency’s ever done. You won’t always succeed but reach for the stars anyway. Be more ambitious. That’s the first thing.”

2/ Know your product:

“Really work on knowing about the product,” said Ogilvy. “The more you know about the product, the more likely you are to sell it. Study the precedents — what other agencies have done, what campaigns they’ve done for similar products. Know all about that. Work like a sonofabitch.”

3/ Use your unconscious:

“Most great ideas come from the unconscious,” said Ogilvy, “and it’s pretty hard, if you’re sitting in an office, to have your unconscious throw ideas up at you through the telephone buttons. I never wrote an ad in my life in the office. I always did it at home, at night, generally — or after dinner, maybe, if I had a good bottle of wine, which helps you get in touch with the unconscious. Or shaving!”

“Thanks, Rick.”

“Thanks for sharing this with me,” I say. “I’ll watch it.”

“Please do,” Rick says. “I hope it helps you as much as it helped me.”

And it did help me. And now I hope it helps you, too: