David Ogilvy Quotes

The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife.

A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.

The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.

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

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

I did not feel 'evil' when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.

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

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

If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.

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

Play to win, but enjoy the fun.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Big ideas are usually simple ideas.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.

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

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?

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

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.

At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.

The best idea is the simplest.

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

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

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.

What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.

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

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

Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.

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.

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

Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.

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.

Many people - and I think I am one of them - are more productive when they've had a little to drink. I find if I drink two or three brandies, I'm far better able to write.

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

It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop, look, and read.

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.

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

Never write more than two pages on any subject.