Quote

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.

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
Full
Unconsciously
Lost
Avenues
Ever
Provoking
Every
Clients
Masochists
Men
Rejection
Provoke
Account
Handled
Accounts
Madison
Brilliant
Avenue

More quotes by David Ogilvy

Image
A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.
David Ogilvy
Image
If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.
David Ogilvy
Image
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.
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
I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.
David Ogilvy
Image
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.
David Ogilvy
Image
Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left. It's totally dishonest.
David Ogilvy
Image
Write the way you talk. Naturally.
David Ogilvy
Image
If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.
David Ogilvy
Image
I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.
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
Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?
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
I'd like to be remembered, as a copywriter who had some big ideas. That's what the advertising business is all about. Big ideas
David Ogilvy
Image
On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.
David Ogilvy
Image
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
David Ogilvy
Image
Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on.
David Ogilvy
Image
Develop your eccentricities early, and no one will think you're going senile later in life
David Ogilvy
Image
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
David Ogilvy
Image
If you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants
David Ogilvy