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 OGILVYMany 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 OGILVYMany 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 OGILVYDevelop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won’t think you’re going gaga.
DAVID OGILVYIn the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
DAVID OGILVYThere 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 OGILVYGood copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.
DAVID OGILVYRemove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.
DAVID OGILVYIt is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.
DAVID OGILVYLike a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.
DAVID OGILVYNever stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.
DAVID OGILVYThe advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.
DAVID OGILVYIf it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.
DAVID OGILVYDoes advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose the vast majority of editors are incorruptible.
DAVID OGILVYFirst, 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 OGILVYI 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 OGILVYThe pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
DAVID OGILVY