David Ogilvy

British advertising executive who founded Ogilvy & Mather and became the most influential figure in 20th-century advertising — whose Confessions of an Advertising Man remains the best book on professional excellence in any service business.

Created the modern concept of brand image advertising — the argument that every advertisement is a long-term investment in the brand image, not just a short-term sales tool — and wrote the most useful articulation of professional standards in advertising that generalizes to any knowledge business.