Quote

A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.

David Ogilvy

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

David Ogilvy
Age: 88 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 23
Died: 1999
Died: July 21
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Writer
West Horsley
Surrey
David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Business
Advertisement
Without
Advertisements
Good
Advertising
Sells
Product
Drawing
Products
Attention

More quotes by David Ogilvy

Image
When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.
David Ogilvy
Image
The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
David Ogilvy
Image
What you learn is more important than what you earn.
David Ogilvy
Image
If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.
David Ogilvy
Image
The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short-sighted opportunist who siphons off all his advertising dollars for short-term promotions.
David Ogilvy
Image
Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.
David Ogilvy
Image
Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards.
David Ogilvy
Image
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.
David Ogilvy
Image
Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
David Ogilvy
Image
Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.
David Ogilvy
Image
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
Image
The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be. Before people making a buying decision, they have many questions. For example, why they should buy from you, why your product is better than other similar products, why they should trust you, and why they should buy it now, etc.
David Ogilvy
Image
Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell.
David Ogilvy
Image
Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
David Ogilvy
Image
We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost – for support, not for illumination.
David Ogilvy
Image
The trouble with many copywriters in general agencies are that they don't really think in terms of selling. They have never written direct-response they have never tasted blood
David Ogilvy
Image
I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.
David Ogilvy
Image
It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.
David Ogilvy
Image
I know of a brewer who sells more of his beer to the people who never see his advertising than to the people who see it every week. Bad advertising can unsell a product.
David Ogilvy
Image
Creativity needs discipline and freedom.
David Ogilvy