Who Is David Ogilvy Quotes & Sayings

The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short-sighted opportunist who siphons off all his advertising dollars for short-term promotions. — David Ogilvy

First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it. — David Ogilvy

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

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

The general advertisers and their agencies know almost nothing for sure, because they cannot measure the results of their advertising. They worship at the altar of creativity, which really means 'originality': The most dangerous word in the lexicon of advertising — David Ogilvy

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

What is a good advertisement? An advertisement which pleases you because of its style, or an advertisement which sells the most? They are seldom the same. — David Ogilvy

As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship? — David Ogilvy

Don't hire a dog, then bark yourself — David Ogilvy

We like people who are honest. Honest in argument, honest with clients, honest with suppliers, honest with the company - and above all, honest with consumers. — David Ogilvy

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

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

Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands. — David Ogilvy

Play to win, but enjoy the fun. — David Ogilvy

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

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

Within every brand is a product, but not every product is a brand. — David Ogilvy

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

Don't just create content to get credit for being clever - create content that will be helpful, insightful, or interesting for your target audience. — David Ogilvy

It is important to admit your mistakes, and to do so before you are charged with them. Many clients are surrounded by buckpassers who make a fine art of blaming the agency for their own failures. I seize the earliest opportunity to assume the blame. — David Ogilvy

Always hold your sales meetings in rooms too small for the audience, even if it means holding them in the WC. 'Standing room only' creates an atmosphere of success, as in theatres and restaurants, while a half-empty auditorium smells of failure. — David Ogilvy

We admire people who work hard, who are objective and thorough. We detest office politicians, toadies, bullies, and pompous asses. We abhor ruthlessness. The way up our ladder is open to everybody. In promoting people to top jobs, we are influenced as much by their character as anything else. — 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

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

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

Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. — 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

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

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. — 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

Write the way you talk. Naturally. — David Ogilvy

It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy. — David Ogilvy

Most agencies run scared, most of the time ... Frightened people are powerless to produce good advertising ... If I were aclient, I would do everything in my power to emancipate my agencies from fear, even to the extent of giving them long-term contracts. — David Ogilvy

Try and inject into every commercial you make a touch of singularity; a bird that will hook on to the consumers mind — David Ogilvy

It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially - like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye. — David Ogilvy

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

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

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

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

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

Don't count the people that you reach, reach the people who count — David Ogilvy

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

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. — 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

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

What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form. — David Ogilvy

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

Only amateurs use short copy. — David Ogilvy

Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising. — David Ogilvy

Big ideas are usually simple ideas. — David Ogilvy

I once used the word OBSOLETE in a headline, only to discover that 43 per cent of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline, I used the word INEFFABLE, only to discover that I didn't know what it meant myself. — 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

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