David Ogilvy

The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.

I have a theory that the best advertisements come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as true and valid and persuasive.

Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything.

Many manufacturers secretly question whether advertising really sells their product, but are vaguely afraid that their competitors might steal a march on them if they stopped.

A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.

No one should buy on reputation alone. They should come and see it and inspect it, feel it and touch it.

I think I’ve got the best staff in television.

The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.

A world where men ran half our homes and women ran half our institutions would be just a much better world.

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

A low wage business is always insecure.

Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.

A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition.

I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice – in giving a failure another chance.

No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized.

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. 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. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don’t think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

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

[To his ex-entertainment lawyer Eric Eisner who resigned from the presidency of The David Geffen Company in 1991 just as a deal was about to be made with some Japanese] Keep your stock. [Eric sold it.]

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