David Ogilvy Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by David Ogilvy.
Famous Quotes By David Ogilvy
The success of a meeting often depends on having the right documents - proofs, artwork, schedules, research charts, etc. - present at the start of the meeting. All too often we arrive like plumbers, leaving our tools behind. — David Ogilvy
I don't know the rules of grammar. If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language. — David Ogilvy
Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product. — David Ogilvy
Senior men have no monopoly on great ideas. Nor do creative people. Some of the best ideas come from account executives, researchers and others. Encourage this, you need all the ideas you can get. — David Ogilvy
You now have to decide what 'image' you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place. — David Ogilvy
I was doing a campaign once for a manufacturer, and I couldn't think of an ideas, and I was kind of desperate about it. The night before I had to show something to my client I had a dream, an interesting dream. I woke up and for once in my life I wrote it down and went back to sleep Next morning I went to the office and had that dream out into a TV commercial which is still running thirty years after and which has made that particular product the leader in its field. — David Ogilvy
Many manufacturers secretly question whether advertising really sells their product, but are vaguely afraid that their competitors might steal a march on them if they stopped. — David Ogilvy
Candor compels me to admit that I have no conclusive research to support my view that jingles are less persuasive than the spoken word. You'd run like hell if a salesman came to your door and began singing at you. Why do it in advertising? — David Ogilvy
Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image. — David Ogilvy
Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say. — David Ogilvy
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. — David Ogilvy
Give people a taste of Old Crow, and tell them it's Old Crow. Then give them another taste of Old Crow, but tell them it's Jack Daniel's. Ask them which they prefer. They'll think the two drinks are quite different. They are tasting images — David Ogilvy
The trouble with many copywriters in general agencies are that they don't really think in terms of selling. They have never written direct-response; they have never tasted blood — David Ogilvy
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. — David Ogilvy
H. L. Mencken once said that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. That is not true. I have come to believe that it pays to make all your layouts project a feeling of good taste, provided that you do it unobtrusively. An ugly layout suggests an ugly product. There are very few products which do not benefit from being given a first class ticket through life. — David Ogilvy
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. — David Ogilvy
People don't buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. — David Ogilvy
It takes uncommon guts to stick to one style in the face of all the pressures to 'come up with something new' every six months. It is tragically easy to be stampeded into change. But golden rewards await the advertiser who has the brains to create a coherent image, and the stability to stick with it over a long period. — David Ogilvy
Training should not be confined to trainees. It should be a continuous process, and should include the entire professional staff of the agency. The more our people learn, the more useful they can be to our clients. — David Ogilvy
In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. — David Ogilvy
If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself. — David Ogilvy
People who think well, write well — David Ogilvy
The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason. — David Ogilvy
I never assign a product to a writer unless I know that he is personally interested in it. Every time I have written a bad campaign, it has been because the product did not interest me. — David Ogilvy
Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything. — David Ogilvy
Madison Avenue is full of masochists who unconsciously provoke rejection by their clients. I know brilliant men who have lost every account they have ever handled. — David Ogilvy
The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife. — David Ogilvy
Committees can criticize, but they cannot create. — David Ogilvy
Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work. — David Ogilvy
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 — David Ogilvy
A consumer is not a moron. She's your wife. Don't insult her intelligence, and don't shock her. — David Ogilvy
The only marketers who know what the hell they're doing are those who have worked in sales — David Ogilvy
If you have a truly big idea, the wrong technique won't kill it. And if you don't have a big idea, the right technique won't help you — David Ogilvy
The relationship between a manufacturer and his advertising agency is almost as intimate as the relationship between a patient and his doctor. Make sure that you can life happily with your prospective client before you accept his account. — David Ogilvy
When people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Kill the grimness with laughter. Encourage exuberance. Get rid of sad dogs that spread gloom. — David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy made his copywriters come up 100 different headlines for every ad they wrote. — David Ogilvy
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. — David Ogilvy
There are very few men of genius in advertising agencies. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are disagreeable. Don't destroy them. They lay golden eggs. — David Ogilvy
A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service. — David Ogilvy
Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct? — David Ogilvy
If you, my fellow copywriters or art directors, want to win the award, devote your genius to making the cash register ring. — David Ogilvy
If you can't advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else? — David Ogilvy
You can't save souls in an empty church. — David Ogilvy
I had a friend who was the King's surgeon in England. One day I asked him what makes a great surgeon. He replied, "What distinguishes a great surgeon is his knowledge. He knows more than other surgeons. During an operation he finds something which he wasn't expecting, recognizes it and knows what to do about it." It's the same thing with advertising people. The good ones know more. How do you get to know more? By reading books about advertising. By picking the brains of people who know more than you do. From the Magic Lanterns. And from experience. — David Ogilvy
What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it. — David Ogilvy
I always use my clients' products. This is not toady-ism, but elementary good manners. — David Ogilvy
The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything. — David Ogilvy
Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals. — David Ogilvy
You make the best products you can, and you grow as fast as you deserve to. — David Ogilvy
Only amateurs use short copy. — David Ogilvy
Managing an advertising agency isn't all beer and skittles. After fourteen years of it, I have come to the conclusion that the top man has one principle responsibility: to provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work. — David Ogilvy
In most agencies, account executives outnumber the copywriters two to one. If you were a dairy farmer, would you employ twice as many milkers as you had cows? — David Ogilvy
Within every brand is a product, but not every product is a brand. — David Ogilvy
The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace. — David Ogilvy
Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga. — David Ogilvy
Play to win, but enjoy the fun. — David Ogilvy
Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands. — David Ogilvy
Don't hire a dog, then bark yourself — David Ogilvy
Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards. — David Ogilvy
Big ideas are usually simple ideas. — David Ogilvy
Nowadays it is the fashion to pretend that no single individual is ever responsible for a successful advertising campaign. This emphasis on "teamwork" is bunkum - a conspiracy of the mediocre majority. — David Ogilvy
To advertisers: "Do not compete with your agency in the creative area. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?" — David Ogilvy
Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines ... People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say. — David Ogilvy
Supposing you've got an acute appendicitis. You've got to be operated on tonight. Would you like to have a surgeon who's read some books of anatomy and knows how to do that operation - or would you prefer to have a surgeon who refused to read all books about anatomy and relied on his own instinct? — David Ogilvy
Write the way you talk. Naturally. — David Ogilvy
If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data - it doesn't mean the ad is written. Then you've got to close the door and write something - that is the moment of truth which we all try to postpone as long as possible. — David Ogilvy
If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it, — David Ogilvy
Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom. — David Ogilvy
You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas. — David Ogilvy
Advertising is the place where the selfish interests of the manufacturer coincide with the interests of society. — David Ogilvy
Any fool can write a bad advertisement, but it takes a genius to keep his hands off a good one. — David Ogilvy
Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client. — David Ogilvy
Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things. — David Ogilvy
Repeat your winners. If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops selling. Scores of good advertisements have been discarded before they lost their potency. — David Ogilvy
Never allow two people to do a job which one could do. George Washington observed, 'Whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty by close application thereto, it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein. — David Ogilvy
Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. — David Ogilvy
The best leaders are apt to be found among those executives who have a strong component of unorthodoxy in their character. Instead of resisting innovation, they symbolize it. — David Ogilvy
Study the methods of your competitors and do the exact opposite. — David Ogilvy
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying. — David Ogilvy
At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. — David Ogilvy
I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs. — David Ogilvy
We exist to build the business of our clients. The recommendations we make to them should be the recommendations we would make if we owned their companies, without regard to our own short-term interest. This earns their respect, which is the greatest asset we can have. — David Ogilvy
Viewers have a way of remembering the celebrity while forgetting the product. I did not know this when I paid Eleanor Roosevelt $35,000 to make a commercial for margarine. She reported that her mail was equally divided. "One half was sad because I had damaged my reputation. The other half was happy because I had damaged my reputation." Not one of my proudest memories. — David Ogilvy
Great hospitals do two things. They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people. — David Ogilvy
The business community wants remarkable advertising, but turns a cold shoulder to the kind of people who can produce it. That is why most advertisements are so infernally dull ... our business needs massive transfusions of talent. And talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels. — David Ogilvy
There is one catagory of advertising which is totally uncontrolled and flagrantly dishonest: the television commercials for candidates in Presidential elections. — David Ogilvy
The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn't even verbal. It requires 'a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconscious.' The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked. — David Ogilvy
Few of the great creators have bland personalities. They are cantankerous egotists, the kind of men who are unwelcome in the modern corporation. — David Ogilvy
My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way — David Ogilvy
It follows that your advertising should consistently project the same image, year after year. This is difficult to achieve, because there are always forces at work to change the advertising — David Ogilvy
If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. — David Ogilvy
Lazy and superficial men and women do not produce superior work. — David Ogilvy
Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them. — David Ogilvy