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People Quotes by David Ogilvy

40 People quotes by David Ogilvy

All People quotes David Ogilvy’s page

David Ogilvy dismisses cute, comic, and tricky advertising, insisting that honesty should lead the message. He reminds us that headlines capture five times more eyes than the body copy. He also says hiring people who are better than you and giving them freedom drives remarkable work.

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People who think well, write well

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

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It is the inescapable duty of management to fire incompetent people.

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You cannot bore people into buying your product - you can only interest them in buying it.

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

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

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

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Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga.

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The more story-appeal there is in the picture or in the photograph, the more people would look at your ad

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People don't buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night.

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Senior men have no monopoly on great ideas. Nor do creative people. Some of the best ideas come from account executives, researchers…

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Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone.…

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Training should not be confined to trainees. It should be a continuous process, and should include the entire professional staff of the…

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

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Give people a taste of Old Crow, and tell them it's Old Crow. Then give them another taste of Old Crow, but…

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I have an inviolable rule against employing nepots and spouses, because they breed politics. Whenever two people get married, one of them…

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On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline,…

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I don't know the rules of grammar... If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to…

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“When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from…

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We admire people who work hard, who are objective and thorough. We detest office politicians, toadies, bullies, and pompous asses. We abhor…

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The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be. Before people making a buying decision, they have many questions. For…

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You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you…

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Most readers look at the photograph first. If you put it in the middle of the page, the reader will start by…

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

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

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I had a friend who was the King's surgeon in England. One day I asked him what makes a great surgeon. He…

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Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.

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Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines… People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say.

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If you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants

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I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.

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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…

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Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don't live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a…

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When people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Kill the grimness with laughter. Encourage exuberance. Get rid of sad…

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Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim…

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You now have to decide what 'image' you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they…

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We like people who are honest. Honest in argument, honest with clients, honest with suppliers, honest with the company - and above…

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Many people - and I think I am one of them - are more productive when they've had a little to drink.…

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Great hospitals do two things. They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. We look after clients, and we teach young…

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I know of a brewer who sells more of his beer to the people who never see his advertising than to the…

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Most agencies run scared, most of the time. . . .Frightened people are powerless to produce good advertising. . . . If…

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More by David Ogilvy

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

In most agencies, account executives outnumber the copywriters two to one. If you were a dairy farmer, would you employ twice as many milkers…

“Your alcoholics may include some of your brightest stars. The problem is to identify them, protected as they always are by their secretaries and…

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

Many manufacturers secretly question whether advertising really sells their product, but are vaguely afraid that their competitors might steal a march on them if…

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

You can't save souls in an empty church.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

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

Compete with the immortals

You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas.

The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore. Foster any attempt to talk about other things; the longer you stay…

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 that kind…

I never assign a product to a writer unless I know that he is personally interested in it. Every time I have written a…

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