David Ogilvy Quotes

Whenever you can, make the product itself the hero of your advertising. If you think the product too dull, I have news for you: there are no dull products, only dull writers.

St Augustine had this to say about pressure: ‘To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world: war, siege, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures, and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendor. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure, but does not complain. For it is the friction which polishes him. It is pressure which refines and makes him noble.

I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.

I don't believe in this specialization. Who said there's one breed of cat which is an account executive, and then there are the creative people – and they are quite different? This has been perpetuated by both sides for years. It's nonsense.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine.

Most of the art schools which train unsuspecting students for careers in advertising still subscribe to the mystique of the Bauhaus. They hold that the success of an advertisement depends on such things as “balance,” “movement,” and “design,” but can they prove it? My research suggests that these aesthetic intangibles do conceal my hostility to the old school of art directors who take such preachments seriously.

I have found that it is easier to double the selling power of a commercial than to double the audience of a program. This may come as news to Hollywood hidalgos who produce programs and look down their noses at us obscure copywriters who write the commercials.

A psychologist flashed hundreds of words on a screen and used an electric gadget to measure emotional reactions. High marks went to darling. So I used it in a headline for Dove.

In the best establishments, promises are always kept, whatever it may cost in agony and overtime.