QUOTES by David Ogilvy
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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
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Once upon a time I was riding on the top of a First Avenue bus, when I heard a mythical housewife say to another, "Molly, my dear, I would have bought that new brand of toilet soap if only they hadn't set the body copy in ten point Garamond." Don't you believe it. What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
I don't believe in tricky advertising, I don't believe in cute advertising, I don't believe in comic advertising. The people who perpetrate that kind of advertising never had to sell anything in their lives
Quote by -David Ogilvy
The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Develop your eccentricities early, and no one will think you're going senile later in life
Quote by -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
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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
Quote by -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
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Nobody ever arrives at a very big idea through a conscious, rational thought process. It comes from your unconscious.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Many of the greatest creations of man have been inspired by the desire to make money...If Oxford undergraduates were paid for their work, I would have performed miracles of scholarship and become Regius Professor of Modern History.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy
Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -David Ogilvy