David Ogilvy Quotes

Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.

The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.

There are now unmistakeable signs of a trend in favor of superior products at premium prices. The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife.

The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.

Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on.

If you can't be brilliant, at least be memorable

Every ad is an investment in the long-term image of a brand.

Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.

My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way

One half was sad because I had damaged my reputation. The other half was happy because I had damaged my reputation.

I always use my clients' products. This is not toady-ism, but elementary good manners.

Write the way you talk. Naturally.

Within every brand is a product, but not every product is a brand.

Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards.

Don't count the people that you reach, reach the people who count

It's not creative unless it sells.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore ... Pretend to be vastly interested in any subject the prospects shows an interest in.

You can't save souls in an empty church.

Make sure you have a vice president in charge of your revolution, to engender ferment among your more conventional colleagues.

Readers travel so fast they don't stop to decipher the meaning of obscure headlines.

Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left. It's totally dishonest.

Advertising is the place where the selfish interests of the manufacturer coincide with the interests of society.

People don't buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night.

Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.

If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

Only amateurs use short copy.

Never write more than two pages on any subject.

It isn't the whiskey they choose, it's the image.

While you are responsible to your clients for sales results, you are responsible to consumers for the kind of advertising you bring into their homes.

You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.

In my experience, committees can criticize, but they cannot create. 'Search the parks in all your cities You'll find no statues of committees.

Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?

No sale, no commission. No commission, no eat. That made an impression on me.

The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines ... People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say.

Don't hire a dog, then bark yourself

David Ogilvy made his copywriters come up 100 different headlines for every ad they wrote.

You cannot bore people into buying your product - you can only interest them in buying it.

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

It's the lack of ambition that cripples most people, and makes them so pedestrian in the advertising/creative business

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine.

Does advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose ... the vast majority of editors are incorruptible.

Any fool can write a bad advertisement, but it takes a genius to keep his hands off a good one.

I'd like to be remembered, as a copywriter who had some big ideas. That's what the advertising business is all about. Big ideas

It is the inescapable duty of management to fire incompetent people.

I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.

The more story-appeal there is in the picture or in the photograph, the more people would look at your ad

Where people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work.

Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.

Lazy and superficial men and women do not produce superior work.

The most effective leader is the one who satisfies the psychological needs of his followers.

Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.

When you have nothing to say, sing it.

Creativity Is a fancy word for the work we have to do by Friday.

A consumer is not a moron. She's your wife. Don't insult her intelligence, and don't shock her.

The psychiatrists say that everybody should have a hobby. The hobby I recommend is advertising

I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.

The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.

Nobody should be allowed to create general advertising until he has served his apprenticeship in direct-response

Few of the great creators have bland personalities. They are cantankerous egotists, the kind of men who are unwelcome in the modern corporation.

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.

We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost - for support, but not for illumination

Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.

The only marketers who know what the hell they're doing are those who have worked in sales

Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga.

If you, my fellow copywriters or art directors, want to win the award, devote your genius to making the cash register ring.

Creativity needs discipline and freedom.

The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.

Never use jargon words like 'reconceptualize', 'demassification', 'attitudinally', 'judgmentally'. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it,

I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.

Study the methods of your competitors and do the exact opposite.

You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas.

If you can't advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else?

Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.

If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself.

Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created

Every advertisement is part of the long term investment in the personality of the brand.

Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.

People who think well, write well

Committees can criticize, but they cannot create.

Develop your eccentricities early, and no one will think you're going senile later in life

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product.

The temptation to entertain instead of selling is contagious.

Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.

Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell.

The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.

Be more ambitious. Don't bunt. When you get a job to do a story or an ad, try and hit the ball out of the park every time

Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands.

To advertisers: "Do not compete with your agency in the creative area. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?"

It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money ...

I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement.

What you learn is more important than what you earn.

I can't stand callow amateurs who aren't sufficiently interested in the craft of advertising to assume the posture of students.

Big ideas are usually simple ideas.