The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
DAVID OGILVYIf it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.
More David Ogilvy Quotes
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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.
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I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.
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Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything.
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What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.
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I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.
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The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife.
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Many manufacturers secretly question whether advertising really sells their product, but are vaguely afraid that their competitors might steal a march on them if they stopped.
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In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
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Leaders grasp nettles.
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Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won’t think you’re going gaga.
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Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
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There are very few men of genius in advertising agencies. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are disagreeable. Don’t destroy them. They lay golden eggs.
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I avoid clients for whom advertising is only a marginal factor in their marketing mix. They have an awkward tendency to raid their advertising appropriations whenever they need cash for other purposes.
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The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace.
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A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.
DAVID OGILVY






