David Ogilvy Advertising Quotations

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

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

It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.

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

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.

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

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

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.

When you have nothing to say, sing it.

I know of a brewer who sells more of his beer to the people who never see his advertising than to the people who see it every week. Bad advertising can unsell a product.

Why should a manufacturer bet his money, perhaps the future of his company, on your instinct?

Claude Hopkins.. maintained that nobody with a college education could write an advertisement addressed to the mass millions. That's absolute poppycock.

Nobody should be allowed to create general advertising until he has served his apprenticeship in direct-response

Advertising is the place where the selfish interests of the manufacturer coincide with the interests of society.

Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created

I can't stand callow amateurs who aren't sufficiently interested in the craft of advertising to assume the posture of students.

The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short-sighted opportunist who siphons off all his advertising dollars for short-term promotions.

Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.

If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else?

The psychiatrists say that everybody should have a hobby. The hobby I recommend is advertising

You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.

Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.

Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands.

There is one category of advertising which is totally uncontrolled and flagrantly dishonest: the television commercials for candidates in Presidential elections.