David Ogilvy Quotes about Advertising

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

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

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

It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop, look, and read.

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created

If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else?

Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.

Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands.

Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything.

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

The psychiatrists say that everybody should have a hobby. The hobby I recommend is advertising

When you have nothing to say, sing it.

Advertising is the place where the selfish interests of the manufacturer coincide with the interests of society.

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

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.

It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.

Claude Hopkins.. maintained that nobody with a college education could write an advertisement addressed to the mass millions. That's absolute poppycock.

Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?

I know of a brewer who sells more of his beer to the people who never see his advertising than to the people who see it every week. Bad advertising can unsell a product.

Nobody should be allowed to create general advertising until he has served his apprenticeship in direct-response

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.

The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short-sighted opportunist who siphons off all his advertising dollars for short-term promotions.