In 1956, David Ogilvy found himself in a rather peculiar situation.

He was attempting to land Greyhound Bus.

But, he wasn’t doing it alone.

He was joint pitching the account with Arthur Fatt, the co-founder of another advertising powerhouse called Grey.

Fatt and Ogilvy flew out to San Francisco, checked into the hotel and began showing one another the material their individual creative teams had come up with.

The king of advertising found himself swooning as Fatt unveiled a campaign accompanied by the slogan…

“It’s such a comfort to take the bus and leave the driving to us.”

Ogilvy was so impressed that he phoned his contact at Greyhound and told him to meet the pair in Fatt’s room, immediately.

During this fateful Rendezvous, Ogilvy said the following before exiting the room…

“Arthur Fatt has just shown me his half of our joint presentation. It is the best I have ever seen. I advise you to give your whole account to Grey. To make your decision easier, I am now returning to New York.”

Ogilvy did as he said and flew back to the Big Apple and Fatt was awarded the Greyhound Bus account.

May the better man win.

Ogilvy was a confident bastard but he wasn’t afraid to give credit where credit was due. Something I admire deeply about his legend.

In several places in Confession of an Advertising Man, he makes mention of turning down clients whom he felt he either couldn’t help or couldn’t improve upon the advertising they already had in place.

This situation with Fatt was one of them.

Later, Fatt’s campaign slogan would be trimmed down into one that Greyhound Bus still uses to this day, nearly seventy years after the fact…

“Leave the driving to us.”

In closing…

Never be so prideful that you can’t tip your hat to the better man.

And, when you’re the better man and you’ve landed on something good, don’t be afraid to milk it to the last drop.

But, I digress.

By Cole Schafer.

P.S. If slogans make you weak in the knees, here are 76 more.