David Ogilvy Quotes
160 David Ogilvy Quotes
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Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
David Ogilvy
Never write an advertisement you wouldn’t want your own family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell lies to mine.
David Ogilvy
Every word in the copy must count.
David Ogilvy
We sell or else.
David Ogilvy
[On advertising to sell] Every copywriter should start his career by spending two years in direct response.
David Ogilvy
Make sure that your agency makes a profit. Your account competes with all the other accounts in your agency. If it is unprofitable, it is unlikely that the management of the agency will assign their best people to work on it. And sooner or later they will cast about for a profitable account to replace yours.
David Ogilvy
[On his father] He sneezed louder than anyone I have ever known, ate spoonfuls of hot Colman’s mustard without any apparent sign of distress, and climbed trees as fast as a chimpanzee. He did his best to make me as strong and brainy as himself. When I was six, he required that I should drink a glass of raw blood every day. To strengthen my mental faculties, he ordained that I should eat calves brains three times a week, washed down with a bottle of beer. Blood, brains and beer; a noble experiment.
David Ogilvy
[On Dr George Gallup founder of the Gallup Poll] Apart from polling, he taught me three things of consummate value: 1) Grant graciously what you dare not refuse 2) When you don’t know the answer, confuse the issue and 3) When you foul the air in somebody else’s bathroom, burn a match and the smell will vanish.
David Ogilvy
I seldom came across a top man who showed any ability as a leader. All too many of them, far from inspiring their lieutenants, displayed a genius for emasculating them.
David Ogilvy
[On men who manager great corporations] Most of them are good problem-solvers and decision-makers, but few are outstanding leaders. Some of them, far from inspiring their lieutenants, display a genius for castrating them.
David Ogilvy
Great leadership can have an electrifying effect on the performance of any corporation.
David Ogilvy
There appears to be no correlation between leadership and academic achievement.
David Ogilvy
How many advertising agencies would hire a 38 year old man who curriculum viae read: ‘Unemployed farmer, former cook and university drop-out? (Me in the year I started Ogilvy and Mather.)
David Ogilvy
Great leaders almost always exude self-confidence. They are never petty. They are never buck-passers. They pick themselves up after defeat…
David Ogilvy
Great leaders are always fanatically committed to their jobs. They do not suffer from the crippling need to be universally loved. They have the guts to make unpopular decisions – including the guts to fire non-performers.
David Ogilvy
Some men are good at leading the multitude – whether it be the labor force in their company, or the voting population in their country. But these same men are often miserable leaders of a small group.
David Ogilvy
I do not believe that fear is a tool used by good leaders.
David Ogilvy
A man who spendeth his life gathering gold for the United States Treasury and has no fun, is a sounding ass and a tinkling idiot.
David Ogilvy
I have always believed that if I could understand how Monsieur Pitard, the head chef, inspired such white-hot morale, I could apply the same kind of leadership to the management of my advertising agency.
David Ogilvy
[On himself] Will any agency hire this man? He is 38, and unemployed. He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. He knows nothing about marketing, and has never written any copy. He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is willing to work for US$5,000 a year. I doubt if any American agency will hire him.
David Ogilvy
I had a terrific advantage when I started an agency in New York. I had a British accent. With so many agencies, so much competition, I’d got a gimmick – my English accent, which helped to differentiate me from the ordinary.
David Ogilvy
You promised to show me the Sears ads last Tuesday. You have now been working on them for three months – longer than the gestation period in PIGS.
David Ogilvy
I am a miserable duffer in everything except advertising.
David Ogilvy
When Fortune wrote an article about me and titled it ‘Is David Ogilvy a genius?’ I asked my lawyer to sue the editor for the question mark.
David Ogilvy
I occasionally use the hideous word creative myself, for lack of a better.
David Ogilvy
If you ask which of my advertisements was the most successful, I will answer it was the first I wrote for industrial Puerto Rico. It won no awards for ‘creativity’, but it persuaded scores of manufacturers to start factories on that poverty-stricken island.
David Ogilvy
Do you want fine writing? Do you want masterpieces? Or do you want to see the goddamned sales curve start moving up?
David Ogilvy
The copywriter lives with fear. Will he have a big idea before Tuesday morning? Will the client buy it? Will it get a high test score? Will it sell the product? I never sit down to write an advertisement without thinking this time I am going to fail.
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. 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
One of the difficult things about writing advertising copy is that it is so short.
David Ogilvy
You can’t write much more than 100 words in a tv commercial…
David Ogilvy
Some very good writers have tried their hands at writing advertising and have failed.
David Ogilvy
Writing good advertisements is very difficult indeed. But writing good anything is very difficult.
David Ogilvy
I approached advertising from the viewpoint of the researcher.
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
We are constantly being given credit for advertisements which came out of our agencies that we have had nothing to do with… I wish I knew how to stop it.
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. This may sound corny, but it happens to be the harsh reality.
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
Queen Victoria complained that Gladstone talked to her as if he were addressing a public meeting. She preferred Disraeli, who talked to her like a human being. When you write copy, follow Disraeli’s example.
David Ogilvy
Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process. You can help this process by going for a long walk, or taking a hot bath, or drinking half a pint of claret. Suddenly, if the telephone line from your unconscious is open, a big idea wells up within you.
David Ogilvy
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