David Ogilvy

If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

Repeat your winners. If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops selling. Scores of good advertisements have been discarded before they lost their potency.

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

You cannot bore people into buying your product - you can only interest them in buying it.

The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.

Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client.

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

If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.

It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop, look, and read.

Don't count the people that you reach, reach the people who count

Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on.

The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.

Don't hire a dog, then bark yourself

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

I never tell one client that I cannot attend his sales convention because I have a previous engagement with another client; successful polygamy depends upon pretending to each spouse that she is the only pebble on your beach.

A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service.

Why do eight out of ten new consumer products fail? Sometimes because they are too new. The first cold cereals were rejected by consumers. More often new products fail because they are not new enough.

Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work.