David Ogilvy Headlines Quotations

I once used the word OBSOLETE in a headline, only to discover that 43 per cent of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline, I used the word INEFFABLE, only to discover that I didn't know what it meant myself.

Readers travel so fast they don't stop to decipher the meaning of obscure headlines.

The headline is the most important element in most advertisements. It is the telegram which decides the reader whether to read the copy.

It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money...

I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement.