Quote

Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client.

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
Reader
Copies
Stadium
Alone
Letter
Client
Though
Addresses
Stadiums
Read
Pretend
Gathered
Business
Readers
Copy
Together
Marketing
Clients
Writing
Advertising
Behalf
People
Letters
Address

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Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?
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If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.
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Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything.
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I'd like to be remembered, as a copywriter who had some big ideas. That's what the advertising business is all about. Big ideas
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Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.
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Headlines can be strengthend by the inclusion of emotional words like darling, love, fear, proud, friend and baby.
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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.
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The consumer isn't a moron she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.
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You can't save souls in an empty church.
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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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In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
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A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service.
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If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.
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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 of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
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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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The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
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Develop your eccentricities early, and no one will think you're going senile later in life
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