now? And, indeed, what is an idea? It is curious how infrequently the last question is answered, precisely, granted that this is meant to be a business fuelled by ideas. One of my treasured advertising books is a dog-haired volume called Practical Advertising from 1909. It was published each year, in London, by our British antecedent, Mather & Crowther. It is their Mather in our name; and it was here that David Ogilvy came to work for his brother, Francis, in the 1930s. One of the house ads in this book shows a client with a plump, well-fed face, in a winged collar, polka-dot tie and a pince-nez, scrutinizing a newspaper. The headline says, “Looking Twice”. And the copy proceeds with a paragraph: “How often do you have to look twice before finding your own announcement? How many casual readers, do you suppose, will be equally diligent?” How many indeed? And that, I suppose is a neat way of explaining why we need ideas. It’s the ideas that make people notice things. But have you ever been asked to define an idea? Please give yourself just 30 seconds – and pause without reading on. Try it now, right now. So what is an idea? If you have pen and paper to hand, write your answer down. It’s not that easy, is it? And, strangely, not many advertising people have ever defined it very convincingly. Or, if they have, gone into print with it.