Convincing Larry Ellison That Advertising Generates Business

 

This was the first ad I did for Larry Ellison. My buddy Ken Cohen had already joined Oracle, and I'd just started my guerrilla-warfare ad business in California. In my first meeting with Larry, he poo-poohed the value of advertising. I told him I could prove him wrong for $600. He took that bet. I said we could buy the front-page box on the lower right-hand corner of MIS WEEK for $600. We spent most of December 1984 crafting this. My contribution was to use the newspaper's font and make the ad look like editorial. Since this was MIS WEEK's first shot at this, they didn't think to put the word "advertisement" on the piece. The result? The phone rang off the hook and Oracle became my client for the next 6 years. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennet Ad Hit Man