Advertising Quotes by David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created

— David Ogilvy

The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife.

— David Ogilvy

When you have nothing to say, sing it.

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards.

— David Ogilvy

The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product…

— David Ogilvy

Talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left. It's totally dishonest.

— David Ogilvy

It's the lack of ambition that cripples most people, and makes them so pedestrian in the advertising/creative business

— David Ogilvy

It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains…

— David Ogilvy

It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement and the more it looks like an editorial, the…

— David Ogilvy

Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when…

— David Ogilvy

There are very few men of genius in advertising agencies. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are…

— David Ogilvy

Candor compels me to admit that I have no conclusive research to support my view that jingles are less persuasive than the…

— David Ogilvy

What is a good advertisement? An advertisement which pleases you because of its style, or an advertisement which sells the most? They…

— David Ogilvy

I don't believe in tricky advertising, I don't believe in cute advertising, I don't believe in comic advertising. The people who perpetrate…

— David Ogilvy

Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should…

— David Ogilvy

You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade. Three million consumers get married every year. The…

— David Ogilvy

There isn’t any significant difference between the various brands of whiskey, or cigarettes or beer. They are all about the same. And…

— David Ogilvy

Once upon a time I was riding on the top of a First Avenue bus, when I heard a mythical housewife say…

— David Ogilvy

I have a theory that the best ads come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really…

— David Ogilvy

The business community wants remarkable advertising, but turns a cold shoulder to the kind of people who can produce it. That is…

— David Ogilvy

I once found myself conspiring with a British Cabinet Minister as to how we might persuade Her Majesty's Treasury to cough up…

— David Ogilvy

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…

— David Ogilvy

Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be…

— David Ogilvy

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.

— David Ogilvy

To advertisers: "Do not compete with your agency in the creative area. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?"

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

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

— David Ogilvy

On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.

— David Ogilvy