Quote

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.

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
Found
Honest
Consumers
Government
Wife
Buying
Done
Lying
Advertising
Writing
Read
Mines
Never
Family
Mine
Would
Business
Products
Thinking
Write
Lies
Advertisement
Tell
Wouldn
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More quotes by David Ogilvy

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The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore...... Pretend to be vastly interested in any subject the prospects shows an interest in.
David Ogilvy
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No sale, no commission. No commission, no eat. That made an impression on me.
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If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.
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Great hospitals do two things. They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.
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Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.
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The mission of a great school is not to cram you with facts so that you can regurgitate them...This gives many boys such a distaste for learning that they never read another book as long as they live. No, the mission is to inspire you with a taste for scholarship - a taste which will last you all your life.
David Ogilvy
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Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.
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It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.
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Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards.
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The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
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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.
David Ogilvy
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Readers travel so fast they don't stop to decipher the meaning of obscure headlines.
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...consumers do not buy one brand of soap, or coffee, or detergent. They have a repertory of four or five brands, and move from one to another. They almost never buy a brand which has not been admitted to their repertory during its first year on the market.
David Ogilvy
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On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.
David Ogilvy
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What you learn is more important than what you earn.
David Ogilvy
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I don't believe in tricky advertising, I don't believe in cute advertising, I don't believe in comic advertising. The people who perpetrate that kind of advertising never had to sell anything in their lives
David Ogilvy
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The more story-appeal there is in the picture or in the photograph, the more people would look at your ad
David Ogilvy
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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.
David Ogilvy
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Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
David Ogilvy
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Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?
David Ogilvy