"Great advertising is like chasing your tail
. . . and actually catching it."

Advertising has always had its visionaries: David Ogilvy, Marion Harper, Ron Popeil . . . but only one had fur (if you exclude Martin Sorrell's back hair.)

Whether jumping in and out of clients' laps or whimpering in pain at a bad voiceover, for Omar making advertising wasn't an intellectual exercise but a visceral, paws-on, tongue-out experience.

His three, seminal "as-told-to" books: "Advertising Isn't Just Scratching Yourself", "Panting Doesn't Make it So", and "Lift a Leg and Make it Happen" redefined what advertising was, and what it would become.

It's impossible to summarize their content in the space of a web page. We can only cite once again some of his most memorable aphorisms:

"Remember this when you conceive a campaign: if you just hand me something, I'll drop it on the lawn. If you throw it, I'll chase after it, and the farther you throw it, the more I'll want it."

"A frozen turkey can be left unattended forever, but if you cook a turkey, and let its smell assault my nostrils, I'll eventually find a way to jump up and grab it and run out of the room."

"If you're able to attract my interest with a new game, I'll play that game with you indefinitely, even past the point where I remember what I found pleasurable about it in the first place."

"If their leg twitches while they sleep, you'll know we've gotten inside their dreams."

"If they don't respond when you bark, bark louder; if they still don't respond, paw at the door, then howl -insanely and without ceasing - then grow eerily quiet, then howl again - you'll always get them to come to the door, and even if a shoe is thrown your way, you know they'll be telling a story about you to all your friends the next day."

"Have you ever seen a cat staring hypnotically at a spot on the floor? That spot is the ad that's made its mark."

"If you can't be a pointer, be a fetcher."

"Advertising is the magic slobber that makes the thing worth wanting."