Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.
DAVID OGILVYDoes advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose the vast majority of editors are incorruptible.
More David Ogilvy Quotes
-
-
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.
DAVID OGILVY -
What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.
DAVID OGILVY -
It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially – like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye.
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.
DAVID OGILVY -
Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.
DAVID OGILVY -
There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.
DAVID OGILVY -
Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
DAVID OGILVY -
The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.
DAVID OGILVY -
Leaders grasp nettles.
DAVID OGILVY -
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.
DAVID OGILVY -
Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.
DAVID OGILVY -
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 -
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
DAVID OGILVY -
Does advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose the vast majority of editors are incorruptible.
DAVID OGILVY -
I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.
DAVID OGILVY -
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 -
Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.
DAVID OGILVY -
What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.
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.
DAVID OGILVY -
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 -
The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
DAVID OGILVY -
The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife.
DAVID OGILVY -
The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
DAVID OGILVY -
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.
DAVID OGILVY -
Political advertising ought to be stopped. It’s the only really dishonest kind of advertising that’s left. It’s totally dishonest.
DAVID OGILVY -
Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.
DAVID OGILVY