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.

— David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy Quotes

Don’t hire a dog, then bark yourself.

— David Ogilvy
Creativity Friday for Work Funny Office

Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on.

— David Ogilvy

Make sure you have a vice president in charge of your revolution, to engender ferment among your more conventional colleagues.

— David Ogilvy

A lot of today’s campaigns are based on optimum positioning but are totally ineffective – because they are dull, or badly constructed, or ineptly written. If nobody reads your advertisement or looks at your commercial, it doesn’t do you much good to have the right positioning.

— David Ogilvy

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

— 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.

— David Ogilvy

Candor compels me to admit that I have no conclusive research to support my view that jingles are less persuasive than the spoken word. You’d run like hell if a salesman came to your door and began singing at you. Why do it in advertising?

— David Ogilvy

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.

— David Ogilvy

Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work.

— David Ogilvy

I can’t stand callow amateurs who aren’t sufficiently interested in the craft of advertising to assume the posture of students.

— David Ogilvy

I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy
Friday for Work All Work And No Play

The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.

— David Ogilvy

Why do eight out of ten new consumer products fail? Sometimes because they are too new. The first cold cereals were rejected by consumers. More often new products fail because they are not new enough.

— David Ogilvy

When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Kill the grimness with laughter. Encourage exuberance. Get rid of sad dogs that spread gloom.

— David Ogilvy

Be more ambitious. Don’t bunt. When you get a job to do a story or an ad, try and hit the ball out of the park every time.

— David Ogilvy

The success of a meeting often depends on having the right documents – proofs, artwork, schedules, research charts, etc. – present at the start of the meeting. All too often we arrive like plumbers, leaving our tools behind.

— David Ogilvy

It has taken more than a hundred scientists two years to find out how to make the product in question; I have been given thirty days to create its personality and plan its launching. If I do my job well, I shall contribute as much as the hundred scientists to the success of this product.

— David Ogilvy

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.

— David Ogilvy
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