David Ogilvy quotes - page 3

Remove 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 Ogilvy)
Does advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose... the vast majority of editors are incorruptible. View quote
David Ogilvy
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. View quote
David Ogilvy
Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them. View quote
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. View quote
David Ogilvy
Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous. View quote
David Ogilvy
Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals. View quote
David Ogilvy
If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative. View quote
David Ogilvy
The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. View quote
David Ogilvy
I don't know the rules of grammar... If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular. View quote
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)
Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything. View quote
David Ogilvy
Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga. View quote
David Ogilvy
I don't know the rules of grammar. If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language. View quote
David Ogilvy
I once used the word OBSOLETE in a headline, only to discover that 43 per cent of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline, I used the word INEFFABLE, only to discover that I didn't know what it meant myself. View quote
David Ogilvy
You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull... When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire. View quote
David Ogilvy
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 recap. View quote
David Ogilvy
Experience has taught me that advertisers get the best results when they pay their agency a flat fee. It is unrealistic to expect your agency to be impartial when its vested interest lies wholly in the direction of increasing your commissionable advertising. View quote
David Ogilvy
If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. View quote
David Ogilvy
A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service. View quote
David Ogilvy
I always use my clients' products. This is not toady-ism, but elementary good manners. (David Ogilvy)
The best leaders are apt to be found among those executives who have a strong component of unorthodoxy in their character. Instead of resisting innovation, they symbolize it. View quote
David Ogilvy
There is one category of advertising which is totally uncontrolled and flagrantly dishonest the television commercials for candidates in Presidential elections. View quote
David Ogilvy
H. L. Mencken once said that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. That is not true. I have come to believe that it pays to make all your layouts project a feeling of good taste, provided that you do it unobtrusively. An ugly layout suggests an ugly product. There are very few products which do not benefit from being given a first class ticket through life. View quote
David Ogilvy
I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs. View quote
David Ogilvy