Ogilvy on Advertising Quotes

“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.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“The most effective leader is the one who satisfies the psychological needs of his followers.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“The hallmarks of a potentially successful copywriter include: Obsessive curiosity about products, people and advertising. A sense of humor. A habit of hard work. The ability to write interesting prose for printed media, and natural dialogue for television. The ability to think visually. Television commercials depend more on pictures than words. The ambition to write better campaigns than anyone has ever written before.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Some copywriters write tricky headlines – double meanings, puns and other obscurities. This is counter-productive. In the average newspaper your headline has to compete with 350 others. Readers travel fast through this jungle. Your headline should telegraph what you want to say.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Tell your prospective client what your weak points are, before he notices them. This will make you more credible when you boast about your strong points.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“It isn’t the whiskey they choose, it’s the image.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“The headlines which work best are those which promise the reader a benefit”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“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.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Never allow two people to do a job which one could do. George Washington observed, ‘Whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty by close application thereto, it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“On average, helpful information is read by 75 per cent more people than copy which deals only with the product. This ad told how Rinso gets out stains. It was read and remembered”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Only amateurs use short copy.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Said Winston Churchill, ‘PERFECTIONISM is spelled PARALYSIS.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“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, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Concentrate your time, your brains, and your advertising money on your successes. Back your winners, and abandon your losers.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“It will help you recognize a big idea if you ask yourself five questions: 1 Did it make me gasp when I first saw it? 2 Do I wish I had thought of it myself? 3 Is it unique? 4 Does it fit the strategy to perfection? 5 Could it be used for 30 years? You”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“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.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Any fool can write a bad advertisement, but it takes a genius to keep his hands off a good one.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Whenever you can, make the product itself the hero of your advertising. If you think the product too dull, I have news for you: there are no dull products, only dull writers.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Set yourself to becoming the best-informed person in the agency on the account to which you are assigned. If, for example, it is a gasoline account, read books on oil geology and the production of petroleum products. Read the trade journals in the field. Spend Saturday mornings in service stations, talking to motorists. Visit your client’s refineries and research laboratories. At the end of your first year, you will know more about the oil business than your boss, and be ready to succeed him. Most”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Most campaigns are too complicated. They reflect a long list of objectives, and try to reconcile the divergent views of too many executives. By attempting to cover too many things, they achieve nothing. Many”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“committees can criticize, but they cannot create.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“It is a good idea to start the year by writing down exactly what you want to accomplish, and end the year by measuring how much you have accomplished. McKinsey imposes this discipline on its partners and pays them according to how many of the things on their lists they accomplish. Leadership”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“I used to start my questionnaires by asking, ‘Which would you rather hear on the radio tonight – Jack Benny or a Shakespeare play?’ If the respondent said Shakespeare, I knew he was a liar and broke off the interview.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“When copywriters argue with me about some esoteric word they want to use, I say to them, ‘Get on a bus. Go to Iowa. Stay on a farm for a week and talk to the farmer. Come back to New York by train and talk to your fellow passengers in the day-coach. If you still want to use the word, go ahead.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Down with committees Most campaigns are too complicated. They reflect a long list of objectives, and try to reconcile the divergent views of too many executives. By attempting to cover too many things, they achieve nothing. Many commercials and many advertisements look like the minutes of a committee. In my experience, committees can criticize, but they cannot create. ‘Search the parks in all your cities You’ll find no statues of committees’ Agencies”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“Hard work, says the Scottish proverb, never killed a man. People die of boredom and disease. There is nothing like an occasional all-night push to enliven morale – provided you are part of the push. Never leave the bridge in a storm.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

“One day a man walked into a London agency and asked to see the boss. He had bought a country house and was about to open it as a hotel. Could the agency help him to get customers? He had $500 to spend. Not surprisingly, the head of the agency turned him over to the office boy, who happened to be the author of this book. I invested his money in penny postcards and mailed them to well-heeled people living in the neighborhood. Six weeks later the hotel opened to a full house. I had tasted blood.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising