Quote

I never tell one client that I cannot attend his sales convention because I have a previous engagement with another client successful polygamy depends upon pretending to each spouse that she is the only pebble on your beach.

David Ogilvy

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David Ogilvy
Age: 88 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 23
Died: 1999
Died: July 21
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Writer
West Horsley
Surrey
David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Advertising
Spouse
Depends
Previous
Pebble
Successful
Clients
Polygamy
Upon
Engagement
Pebbles
Tell
Conventions
Client
Another
Pretending
Convention
Cannot
Beach
Attend
Never
Humorous
Sales

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Big ideas are usually simple ideas.
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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 boss who tolerates second rate work.
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The consumer isn't a moron she is your wife.
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I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement.
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Develop your eccentricities early, and no one will think you're going senile later in life
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It is the inescapable duty of management to fire incompetent people.
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Creativity needs discipline and freedom.
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Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on.
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We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost – for support, not for illumination.
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The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
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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 stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.
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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 tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by.
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Make sure you have a vice president in charge of your revolution, to engender ferment among your more conventional colleagues.
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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.
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My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way
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Lazy and superficial men and women do not produce superior work.
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The best idea is the simplest.
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The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
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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.
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Don't hire a dog, then bark yourself
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