The unpublished David Ogilvy – David Ogilvy, 2012

“In general, study the method of your competitors and do the exact opposite.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.5).

“You must always be faced soon or later with questions and objections, which may indeed be taken as a sign that the prospect’s brain is in working order, and that she is conscientiously considering the Aga as a practical proposition for herself.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.11).

“Develop your eccentricities while you’re young. That way, when you get old, people won’t think you’re going gaga.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.14).

“My conclusion: “The better the advertising, the more profitable the office.”” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.23).

“Great hospitals do two things: They look after patients, and they teach young doctors.

Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.26).

“Now I hear that you are retiring. What a waste of genius. May your shadow never grow less” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.32).

“They were too dull to penetrate the filter which consumers erect to protect themselves against the daily deluge of advertising. Too dull to be remembered. Too dull to build a brand image. Too dull to sell.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.46).

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds … Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.” (Ogilvy quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson, 2012, p.47).

“I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.58).

“I write out a definition of the problem and a statement of the purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until that statement and its principles have been accepted by the client.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.58).

“The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.69).

“(10) If you want action, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.70).

“It’s no use telling the truth if people don’t believe you. So, how can we copywriters make our ads more believable?” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.83).

“make crystal clear to your agency that you aren’t looking for soft, gutless advertising. And that you aren’t looking for mere entertainment.

Explain that you still want advertising with selling teeth in it. Honest teeth, but biting teeth.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.85).

“Every time you run an advertisement that is genuinely creative and interesting, you not only benefit your own company, but all your fellow advertisers.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.85).

“Every advertisement is part of the long-term investment in the personality of the brand.” (Ogilvy quoting Gardner and Levy, 2012, p.86).

“There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second-rate work.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.94). “Don’t let your people fall into a rut. Keep leading them along new paths, blazing new trails. Give them a sense of adventurous pioneering.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p95).

“Really, the amount of paper we have to read nowadays is horrible. For Pete’s sake write shorter memos. Don’t argue with each other on paper.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.96).

“Knowledge is useless unless you know how to communicate it – in writing.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.107).

“Manufacturers are buying volume by price-discounting. (…) As my partner Graham Philipps says, they are training consumers to buy on price instead of brand.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.120). “A cut price offer can induce people to try a brand, but they return to their habitual brands as if nothing had happened.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.122).

“In meetings with clients, do not assume the posture of servants. They need you as much as you need them.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.133).

“While you are responsible to your clients for sales results, you are also responsible to consumers for the kind of advertising you bring into their homes. Your aim should be to create advertising that is good taste.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.133).

“Ex cathedra:

1.     “Ogilvy & Mather – one agency indivisible.

2.     “We sell – or else.”

3.     “You cannot bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them in buying it.”

4.     “Raise your sights! Blaze new trails” Compete with the immortals!!!”

5.     “I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles.”

6.     “We hire gentlemen with brains.”

7.     “The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence.”

8.     “Unless your campaign contains a Big Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”

9.     Only First Class Business, and that in a First Class way.”

10. “Never run an advertisement you would not want your own family to see.” “(Ogilvy, 2012, p.151).

“They (leaders) do not suffer from the crippling need to be universally loved; they have the guts to make unpopular decisions (…). Gladstone once said, that a great Prime Minister must be a good butcher.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.158).

“There’s an old French saying: He who is absent is always wrong.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.183).

“Bores. Above all bores. I think boring is the ultimate sin.” (Ogilvy, 2012, p.183).