David Og

David Ogilvy

    • Raise your sights! Blaze new trails!! Compete with the immortals!!!

    • I believe in the Scottish proverb: ‘Hard work never killed a man.’ Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work.

    • 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.

    • Test your media. Test your headlines and your illustrations. Test the size of your advertisements. Test your frequency. Test your level of expenditure. Test your commercials. Never stop testing, and your communication will never stop improving.

    • Do not summon people to your office - it frightens them. Instead go to see them in their offices .

    • A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.   What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

    • Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.

    • 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

    • The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.

    • Nowadays it is the fashion to pretend that no single individual is ever responsible for a successful advertising campaign. This emphasis on "teamwork" is bunkum - a conspiracy of the mediocre majority.

    • The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her

    • Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.

    • The line between pride in our work and neurotic obstinacy is a narrow one. We make our recommendations...