8 February 2019

Free Exchange: Rory Sutherland on what economists get wrong

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My guest on the podcast this week is Rory Sutherland. Rory is the Vice Chairman of the advertising agency Ogilvy, a job title which the company’s website describes as ‘attractively vague’.

Rory is not your average ad man. After more than 20 years as a copywriter and creative director for the firm, he set up an in-house behavioural economics practice. And outside the day job, he writes the Wiki Man column for the Spectator.

In his journalism, speeches and in conversation Rory is a fount of counterintuitive, insightful and entertaining arguments that mean he is never knowingly dull.

I met him earlier this week at Ogilvy’s London offices, where we discussed, among many other things, the relationship between innovation and marketing, why McDonalds is a safer bet than the Fat Duck, and what economists get wrong about human nature. I started by asking him what marketing advice he had for those of us keen to persuade more people of the merits of the market.

You can listen to the full episode here, subscribe via iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Oliver Wiseman is Editor of CapX.