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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.

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
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Work
Standards
People
Second
Exorbitant
Hell
Tolerates
Give
Demoralizing
Live
Tolerate
Nothing
Boss
Excellence
Giving

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If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.
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I never assign a product to a writer unless I know that he is personally interested in it. Every time I have written a bad campaign, it has been because the product did not interest me.
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Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.
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The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
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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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David Ogilvy made his copywriters come up 100 different headlines for every ad they wrote.
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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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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
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Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
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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.
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Madison Avenue is full of masochists who unconsciously provoke rejection by their clients. I know brilliant men who have lost every account they have ever handled.
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The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short-sighted opportunist who siphons off all his advertising dollars for short-term promotions.
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The success of a meeting often depends on having the right documents - proofs, artwork, schedules, research charts, etc. - present at the start of the meeting. All too often we arrive like plumbers, leaving our tools behind.
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The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
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I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.
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Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.
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You can't save souls in an empty church.
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If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself.
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If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data - it doesn't mean the ad is written. Then you've got to close the door and write something - that is the moment of truth which we all try to postpone as long as possible.
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The best leaders are apt to be found among those executives who have a strong component of unorthodoxy in their character. Instead of resisting innovation, they symbolize it.
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