David Ogilvy

Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards.

The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.

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

Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.

Don’t just create content to get credit for being clever — create content that will be helpful, insightful, or interesting for your target audience.

If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data - it doesn't mean the ad is written. Then you've got to close the door and write something - that is the moment of truth which we all try to postpone as long as possible.

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

Creativity needs discipline and freedom.

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

Every ad is an investment in the long-term image of a brand.

You make the best products you can, and you grow as fast as you deserve to.

Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don't live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.

You now have to decide what 'image' you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

I have a theory that the best ads 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.

The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.

Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product.

What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.

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

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.