David Ogilvy Quotes

Don't count the people that you reach, reach the people who count

Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.

Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.

When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.

Study the methods of your competitors and do the exact opposite.

Every advertisement is part of the long term investment in the personality of the brand.

Write the way you talk. Naturally.

You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.

If you can’t be brilliant, at least be memorable

Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.

Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.

I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement.

If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself.

Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client.

Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

If you want to be interesting, be interested.

We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost – for support, not for illumination.

The best idea is the simplest.

If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

People who think well, write well

Creativity needs discipline and freedom.

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

Where people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work.

Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell.

There isn’t any significant difference between the various brands of whiskey, or cigarettes or beer. They are all about the same. And so are the cake mixes and the detergents, and the margarines… The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit.