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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

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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
Written
Agency
Term
Selling
Many
Response
Really
Terms
Never
Direct
Think
General
Thinking
Blood
Tasted
Trouble
Agencies

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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.
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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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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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Most headlines are set too big to be legible in the magazines or newspaper. Never approve a layout until you have seen it pasted into the magazine or newspaper for which it was destined. If you pin up the layouts on a bulletin board and appraise them from fifteen feet, you will produce posters.
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The business community wants remarkable advertising, but turns a cold shoulder to the kind of people who can produce it. That is why most advertisements are so infernally dull.... our business needs massive transfusions of talent. And talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.
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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.
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Write the way you talk. Naturally.
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If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.
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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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Big ideas are usually simple ideas.
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Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created
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A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.
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David Ogilvy made his copywriters come up 100 different headlines for every ad they wrote.
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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
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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.
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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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We all have a tendency to use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost – for support, not for illumination.
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If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else?
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I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.
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What you learn is more important than what you earn.
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