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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Advertisements

More quotes by David Ogilvy

Image
I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.
David Ogilvy
Image
It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.
David Ogilvy
Image
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
David Ogilvy
Image
My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way
David Ogilvy
Image
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
Image
We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost – for support, not for illumination.
David Ogilvy
Image
The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
David Ogilvy
Image
Great hospitals do two things. They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.
David Ogilvy
Image
While you are responsible to your clients for sales results, you are responsible to consumers for the kind of advertising you bring into their homes.
David Ogilvy
Image
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
Image
You make the best products you can, and you grow as fast as you deserve to.
David Ogilvy
Image
I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.
David Ogilvy
Image
Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
David Ogilvy
Image
It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop, look, and read.
David Ogilvy
Image
A lot of today's campaigns are based on optimum positioning but are totally ineffective - because they are dull, or badly constructed, or ineptly written. If nobody reads your advertisement or looks at your commercial, it doesn't do you much good to have the right positioning.
David Ogilvy
Image
Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.
David Ogilvy
Image
Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created
David Ogilvy
Image
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.
David Ogilvy
Image
Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.
David Ogilvy
Image
I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.
David Ogilvy