David Ogilvy Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• 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?

  David Ogilvy

  Agency, Two, Cows

  22 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Mean, People, Personality

  9 Copy quote

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

  David Ogilvy

  Dog, Humorous, Agency

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  23 Copy quote

• Shakespeare wrote his sonnets within a strict discipline, fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, rhyming in three quatrains and a couplet. Were his sonnets dull? Mozart wrote his sonatas within an equally rigid discipline - exposition, development, and recapitulation. Were they dull?.

  David Ogilvy

  Discipline, Three, Development

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  55 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Dog, Laughter, Fun

  31 Copy quote

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

  David Ogilvy

  Advertising, Irritating, Advertisement Negative

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  17 Copy quote

• If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.

  David Ogilvy

  Wise, Witty, Humor

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Business, Writing, Mean

  5 Copy quote

• No sale, no commission. No commission, no eat. That made an impression on me.

  David Ogilvy

  Made, Impression

  4 Copy quote

• Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

  David Ogilvy

  Writing, Men, Agency

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  32 Copy quote

• The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be. Before people making a buying decision, they have many questions. For example, why they should buy from you, why your product is better than other similar products, why they should trust you, and why they should buy it now, etc.

  David Ogilvy

  People, Decision, Example

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Faults, Worst, Interest

  David Ogilvy (2012). “The Unpublished David Ogilvy”, p.13, Profile Books

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  David Ogilvy

  Ideas, Technique, Helping

  5 Copy quote

• Lazy and superficial men and women do not produce superior work.

  David Ogilvy

  Men, Lazy, Superficial

  5 Copy quote

• Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don't live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.

  David Ogilvy

  People, Giving, Boss

  David Ogilvy (2012). “The Unpublished David Ogilvy”, p.70, Profile Books

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Leadership, Creativity, Creative

  David Ogilvy (1978). “Blood, Brains and Beer”

  22 Copy quote

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

  David Ogilvy

  Business, Organization, Important

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Business, Lying, Writing

  9 Copy quote

• Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.

  David Ogilvy

  Humor, Deep Thought, Marketing

  12 Copy quote

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

  David Ogilvy

  Perfection, Excellence, Planning

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  85 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Perspective, Meat, Flags

  11 Copy quote

• As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship?

  David Ogilvy

  Passion, Dark, Moon

  53 Copy quote

• Never use jargon words like 'reconceptualize', 'demassification', 'attitudinally', 'judgmentally'. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

  David Ogilvy

  Use, Jargon, Ass

  David Ogilvy (2012). “The Unpublished David Ogilvy”, p.54, Profile Books

  6 Copy quote

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

  David Ogilvy

  Inspirational, Business, Creativity

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  30 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Ogilvy

  Senior, Men, Ideas

  David Ogilvy (2012). “The Unpublished David Ogilvy”, p.94, Profile Books

  25 Copy quote

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