Quote

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.

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
Truth
Doors
Ads
Mean
Written
Advertising
Writing
Possible
Data
Trying
Moment
Ground
Long
Business
Rules
Something
Write
Door
Doesn
Research
Directives
Moments
Close
Postpone

More quotes by David Ogilvy

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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.
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The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
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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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People don't buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night.
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The consumer isn't a moron she is your wife.
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Don't hire a dog, then bark yourself
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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 most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace.
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What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.
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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.
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The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
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Readers travel so fast they don't stop to decipher the meaning of obscure headlines.
David Ogilvy
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Creativity needs discipline and freedom.
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It is the inescapable duty of management to fire incompetent people.
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Experience has taught me that advertisers get the best results when they pay their agency a flat fee. It is unrealistic to expect your agency to be impartial when its vested interest lies wholly in the direction of increasing your commissionable advertising.
David Ogilvy
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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.
David Ogilvy
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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.
David Ogilvy
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Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.
David Ogilvy
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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.
David Ogilvy
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My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way
David Ogilvy