Candor compels me to admit that I have no conclusive research to support my view that jingles are less persuasive than the spoken word. You'd run like hell if a salesman came to your door and began singing at you. Why do it in advertising? David Ogilvy More Quotes by David Ogilvy More Quotes From David Ogilvy 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. David Ogilvy boss giving people On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. David Ogilvy body average people What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form. David Ogilvy insightful marketing business If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative. David Ogilvy humor wise witty Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon. David Ogilvy jargon business trying Viewers have a way of remembering the celebrity while forgetting the product. I did not know this when I paid Eleanor Roosevelt $35,000 to make a commercial for margarine. She reported that her mail was equally divided. "One half was sad because I had damaged my reputation. The other half was happy because I had damaged my reputation." Not one of my proudest memories. David Ogilvy mail half memories Most readers look at the photograph first. If you put it in the middle of the page, the reader will start by looking in the middle. Then her eye must go up to read the headline; this doesn't work, because people have a habit of scanning downwards. However, suppose a few readers do read the headline after seeing the photograph below it. After that, you require them to jump down past the photograph which they have already seen. Not bloody likely. David Ogilvy eye people past The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be. Before people making a buying decision, they have many questions. For example, why they should buy from you, why your product is better than other similar products, why they should trust you, and why they should buy it now, etc. David Ogilvy decision example people Be more ambitious. Don't bunt. When you get a job to do a story or an ad, try and hit the ball out of the park every time David Ogilvy ambitious trying jobs It is the inescapable duty of management to fire incompetent people. David Ogilvy management fire people Supposing you've got an acute appendicitis. You've got to be operated on tonight. Would you like to have a surgeon who's read some books of anatomy and knows how to do that operation - or would you prefer to have a surgeon who refused to read all books about anatomy and relied on his own instinct? David Ogilvy instinct tonight book Managing an advertising agency isn't all beer and skittles. After fourteen years of it, I have come to the conclusion that the top man has one principle responsibility: to provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work. David Ogilvy responsibility beer men 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. David Ogilvy agents advertising wife Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines… People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say. David Ogilvy use trying people I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings. David Ogilvy treats manners people The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason. David Ogilvy original-thought majority men I can't stand callow amateurs who aren't sufficiently interested in the craft of advertising to assume the posture of students. David Ogilvy assuming crafts students It has taken more than a hundred scientists two years to find out how to make the product in question; I have been given thirty days to create its personality and plan its launching. If I do my job well, I shall contribute as much as the hundred scientists to the success of this product. David Ogilvy taken business jobs The headline is the most important element in most advertisements. It is the telegram which decides the reader whether to read the copy. David Ogilvy headlines elements important I was doing a campaign once for a manufacturer, and I couldn't think of an ideas, and I was kind of desperate about it. The night before I had to show something to my client I had a dream, an interesting dream. I woke up and for once in my life I wrote it down and went back to sleep Next morning I went to the office and had that dream out into a TV commercial which is still running thirty years after and which has made that particular product the leader in its field. David Ogilvy dream running morning
