David Ogilvy

It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.

Many people – and I think I am one of them – are more productive when they’ve had a little to drink. I find if I drink two or three brandies, I’m far better able to write.

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

I don’t know the rules of grammar. 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, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.

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.

I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.

I have a great, great company. I employ thousands of people. And I’m very proud of the job I did.

I get my design inspiration from Christian Dior and Chanel.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Acquiring the habit of note-taking is therefore a wonderfully complementary skill to that of listening.

In business, cooperation is essential to success.

Your business, and your brand, must first let people know what you care about, and that you care about them.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

We decided not to show One Hyde Park til we were 100% ready. A lot of people open the doors too early.

Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No.1.

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

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.

I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps.

I was never involved in arms trading. In the Russian Federation, arms trading is the prerogative of the state.

We know everything about our clients – if they like their dressing gowns heated, what colour flowers they like, if their chef works left-handed – we know everything and we incorporate it into our work for them.