David Ogilvy Quotes
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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.
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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.
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What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.
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Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga.
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Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.
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In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
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The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife.
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Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.
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I have a theory that the best ads come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as true and valid and persuasive.
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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.
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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.
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Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.
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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.
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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.
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Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
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The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
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Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
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The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.
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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.
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Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.
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Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.
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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.
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If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.
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The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.