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Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything.

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
Sells
Nine
Percent
Business
Doesn
Anything
Ninety
Much
Advertising
Sell

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I can't stand callow amateurs who aren't sufficiently interested in the craft of advertising to assume the posture of students.
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Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.
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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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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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When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.
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I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.
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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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Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines… People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say.
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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.
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Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.
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The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
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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.
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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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Compete with the immortals
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If you have a truly big idea, the wrong technique won't kill it. And if you don't have a big idea, the right technique won't help you
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David Ogilvy made his copywriters come up 100 different headlines for every ad they wrote.
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Write the way you talk. Naturally.
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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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Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.
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