“Said Winston Churchill, ‘PERFECTIONISM is spelled PARALYSIS.” — David Ogilvy Perfection Copy Share Image
My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way — David Ogilvy Business Copy Share Image
On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. — David Ogilvy Advertising Copy Share Image
Where people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work. — David Ogilvy Design Copy Share Image
Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving. — David Ogilvy Advertising Copy Share Image
I'd like to be remembered, as a copywriter who had some big ideas. That's what the advertising business is all about. Big… — David Ogilvy Advertising Copy Share Image
“I don't know the rules of grammar. If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to… — David Ogilvy Advertising Copy Share Image
If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years. — David Ogilvy Age Copy Share Image
Claude Hopkins.. maintained that nobody with a college education could write an advertisement addressed to the mass millions. That's absolute poppycock. — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
Nobody should be allowed to create general advertising until he has served his apprenticeship in direct-response — David Ogilvy Advertising Copy Share Image
Never use jargon words like 'reconceptualize', 'demassification', 'attitudinally', 'judgmentally'. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass. — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
You cannot bore people into buying your product - you can only interest them in buying it. — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
The line between pride in our work and neurotic obstinacy is a narrow one. We make our recommendations clear. But we do… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
Senior men have no monopoly on great ideas. Nor do creative people. Some of the best ideas come from account executives, researchers… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
The success of a meeting often depends on having the right documents - proofs, artwork, schedules, research charts, etc. - present at… — David Ogilvy Artwork Copy Share Image
Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone.… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
The trouble with many copywriters in general agencies are that they don't really think in terms of selling. They have never written… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
...consumers do not buy one brand of soap, or coffee, or detergent. They have a repertory of four or five brands, and… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
Training should not be confined to trainees. It should be a continuous process, and should include the entire professional staff of the… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn't even verbal. It requires 'a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
I had a friend who was the King's surgeon in England. One day I asked him what makes a great surgeon. He… — David Ogilvy Advertising Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every… — David Ogilvy Around the world Copy Share Image
“When you are appointed to head an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send you one of these Russian dolls.… — David Ogilvy Business Copy Share Image
Most readers look at the photograph first. If you put it in the middle of the page, the reader will start by… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
H. L. Mencken once said that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. That is not true. I… — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell. — David Ogilvy Change Copy Share Image
I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement. — David Ogilvy Copy Share Image
