Lessons from David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy was a chef in Paris and a door-to-door salesman in Scotland before opening a New York advertising agency. He built his career on the belief that advertising is not an art form, but a practical way to sell products through research and clear writing. The quotes below capture his rules for managing agencies and writing copy that actually works.

Part 1: Copywriting and the Written Word

  1. On Headlines: "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  2. On Blind Headlines: "Headlines which contain news are sure-fire... Do not use blind headlines—the kind which mean nothing unless you read the body copy underneath them; most people don't." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  3. On Jargon: "Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  4. On Brevity in Memos: "Never write more than two pages on any subject." — Source: [How to Write Memo]
  5. On Informative Copy: "The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  6. On Local Idioms: "If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  7. On Revising: "I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft. After four or five editings, it looks good enough to show to the client." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  8. On Long Copy: "All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  9. On Layout: "Readers look first at the illustration, then at the headline, then at the copy. So put these elements in that order—illustration at the top, headline under the illustration, copy under the headline." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  10. On Captions: "More people read the captions under illustrations than read the body copy, so never use an illustration without putting a caption under it." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]

Part 2: Research and Testing

  1. On the Necessity of Research: "Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  2. On Direct Response: "Direct response people know what kind of advertising works and what doesn't. You know it to a dollar." — Source: [David Ogilvy's 1968 Speech to the DMAA]
  3. On the Unconscious: "The trouble with market research is that people don't think what they feel, they don't say what they think, and they don't do what they say." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  4. On Testing: "Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  5. On Blind Guessing: "Most copywriters still assume that their own personal intuition is a reliable guide to what will sell a product. This is a delusion." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  6. On Copy Testing: "If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  7. On Statistics: "I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  8. On Product Knowledge: "You don't stand a tinker's chance of producing successful advertising unless you start by doing your homework. I have always found this extremely tedious, but there is no substitute for it." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  9. On Reading the Data: "Read the direct response experts. They measure their results. They don't guess." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]

Part 3: Management and Leadership

  1. On Hiring: "If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants." — Source: [Ogilvy & Mather Corporate Culture]
  2. On Respect: "Treat your subordinates as grown-ups—and they will behave like grown-ups." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  3. On Office Politics: "I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings. I abhor quarrelsome people. I abhor people who wage paper-warfare." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  4. On Morale: "Where people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  5. On Delegation: "Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it." — Source: [Blood, Brains and Beer]
  6. On Firing: "Firing people is the most agonizing thing a manager has to do. But if you don't do it, you are failing in your duty to your company, and to your other employees." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  7. On Leadership Quality: "A leader must possess the kind of personal magnetism that makes people want to follow him. He must be a hard worker, and he must have a brain." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  8. On Meetings: "The majority of meetings should be abolished, and the rest kept as brief as possible." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  9. On Praise: "I have always tried to sit on my hands and hold my tongue when a young writer produces a good piece of copy. Let the copy chief praise him. But it is hard." — Source: [Blood, Brains and Beer]

Part 4: The Consumer's Mind

  1. On Intelligence: "The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few tired adjectives will persuade her to buy anything." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  2. On Information Craving: "She wants all the information you can give her." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  3. On Attention: "You cannot bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them in buying it." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  4. On Benefit Selling: "People don't buy products, they buy the benefits the products give them." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  5. On Habit: "Brand loyalty is the most powerful force in consumer behavior." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  6. On Trust: "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." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  7. On Emotion vs Logic: "There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  8. On Purchasing Decisions: "A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  9. On Discounting: "Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  10. On the Core Promise: "The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]

Part 5: Big Ideas and Creativity

  1. On the Big Idea: "Unless your advertising contains a Big Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  2. On True Creativity: "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." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  3. On Recognizing a Big Idea: "Did it make me gasp when I first saw it? Do I wish I had thought of it myself? Is it unique? Does it fit the strategy to perfection? Could it be used for 30 years?" — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  4. On the Subconscious: "Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  5. On Originality: "There are very few men of genius in advertising agencies. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are disagreeable. Don't destroy them. They lay golden eggs." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  6. On Execution: "A good idea can be destroyed by a bad execution, but a bad idea cannot be saved by a good execution." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  7. On Humor: "I have never seen a funny television commercial that sold anything. People do not buy from clowns." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  8. On Novelty: "The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  9. On Imitation: "Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]

Part 6: Career and Ambition

  1. On Starting Out: "If you want to be a successful copywriter, first learn how to sell." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  2. On Choosing Clients: "Never work for a client you don't respect." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  3. On Hard Work: "I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  4. On Restlessness: "Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  5. On Youth: "The best men and women in my agency are those who were the most rebellious when they were young." — Source: [Blood, Brains and Beer]
  6. On Getting Promoted: "If you want to be promoted, make yourself indispensable to your client." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  7. On Expertise: "In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  8. On Experience: "I spent fifteen years in other occupations before I got into advertising. This gave me a better perspective than the man who goes straight from college to Madison Avenue." — Source: [Blood, Brains and Beer]
  9. On Fear of Failure: "In my experience, the men who have done the most in our business have been the ones who were terrified of failing." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]

Part 7: Agency Culture and Habits

  1. On Formality: "We do not like the kind of people who are overly formal. We like people who have good manners." — Source: [Ogilvy & Mather Corporate Culture]
  2. On Professionalism: "Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  3. On Committees: "Search your parks in all your cities; you'll find no statues of committees." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  4. On Bureaucracy: "As agencies grow larger, they become bureaucratic. Bureaucracy is the enemy of creativity." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  5. On Client Relationships: "The relationship between a manufacturer and his advertising agency is almost as intimate as the relationship between a patient and his doctor." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  6. On Independence: "Agencies which are owned by the people who work in them are generally better than agencies which are owned by outside stockholders." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  7. On Client Fear: "Clients who are frightened of their agencies usually get bad advertising." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  8. On Office Hours: "I do not believe that people should be required to be at their desks by nine o'clock. If a man produces good work, I do not care what hours he keeps." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  9. On Strategy: "The most important decision you make is how to position your product. If you position it as a luxury, you will sell to one group. If you position it as a bargain, you sell to another." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  10. On the True Output: "Agencies are not in the business of making advertisements. We are in the business of selling our clients' products." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]

Part 8: Honesty and Ethics in Advertising

  1. On Telling the Truth: "Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating. You know you can't bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them in buying it." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  2. On Deception: "A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  3. On Public Responsibility: "Advertising should not be a tool to exploit the vulnerable; it must be a medium of honest information." — Source: [Blood, Brains and Beer]
  4. On Product Quality: "Good advertising only makes a bad product fail faster." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  5. On Puffery: "I have always hated the kind of advertising that relies on empty adjectives. If you have nothing to say, say nothing." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  6. On Being Honorable: "It pays to be honest. It is also the only way to sleep at night." — Source: [The Unpublished David Ogilvy]
  7. On Social Value: "Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest - it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes." — Source: [Ogilvy on Advertising]
  8. On Admitting Flaws: "Sometimes the best way to win a consumer's trust is to honestly state a minor flaw in your product, then follow it up with a major benefit." — Source: [Confessions of an Advertising Man]
  9. On the Ultimate Standard: "I would rather be known as an honest advertising man who was sometimes dull than a brilliant one who was often deceptive." — Source: [Blood, Brains and Beer]