David Ogilvy

It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially – like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye.

Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don’t live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.

What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

For a long time now, I have believed that industry and agriculture are natural partners and that they should begin to recognize and practice their partnership. Each of them is suffering from ailments which the other can cure. Agriculture needs a wider andsteadier market; industrial workers need more steadier jobs. Can each be made to supply what the other needs? I think so. The link between is Chemistry. In the vicinity of Dearborn we are farming twenty thousand acres for everything from sunflowers to soy beans. We pass the crops through our laboratory to learn how they may be used in the manufacture of motor cars and, thus provide an industrial market for the farmers’ products.

Profits made out of the distress of the people are always much smaller than profits made out of the most lavish service of the people at the lowest prices that competent management can make possible.

Only a fool never changes his mind.

Machines were devised not to do a man out of a job, but to take the heavy labor from man’s back and place it on the broad back of the machine.

You don’t learn to walk by following rules, you learn by doing and by falling over.

Fairs and public displays are the best means we have yet found of showing large numbers of people the real methods of industry.

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.

This is serious business. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun along the way.

[On Laura Nyro] I said to Laura ‘You know Laura, I think we should sell your music publishing company. I think right now is the right time you have three songs in the top ten this may never happen again and I think we can get a lot of money for it.’ And I made a deal with Clive Davis to sell Tuna Fish Music for $4 million. And that was a hell of a lot of money in 1969. It made her famous, it made her rich. It got people to listen to her music with her singing.

Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.

Investors have very short memories.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization.

If the boss stands in the way of men getting what they earn, he is not fit to be boss.

We started learning ourselves, understanding ourselves, reading, researching, going around the world and looking at what was defined as the very best.