If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative. David Ogilvy More Quotes by David Ogilvy More Quotes From David Ogilvy When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire. David Ogilvy fire-extinguishers fire Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards. David Ogilvy office kind men If you have a truly big idea, the wrong technique won't kill it. And if you don't have a big idea, the right technique won't help you David Ogilvy technique helping ideas You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas. David Ogilvy winning fame ideas Few of the great creators have bland personalities. They are cantankerous egotists, the kind of men who are unwelcome in the modern corporation. David Ogilvy corporations personality men Does advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose... the vast majority of editors are incorruptible. David Ogilvy majority editors doe The line between pride in our work and neurotic obstinacy is a narrow one. We make our recommendations clear. But we do not grudge our clients the right to the final say. It is their money. David Ogilvy finals lines pride Nobody ever arrives at a very big idea through a conscious, rational thought process. It comes from your unconscious. David Ogilvy conscious process ideas Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work. David Ogilvy boredom hard-work men I once found myself conspiring with a British Cabinet Minister as to how we might persuade Her Majesty's Treasury to cough up more money for the British Travel advertising in America. Said he, "Why does any American in his senses spend his vacation in the cold damp of an English summer when he could equally well bask under Italian skies? I can only suppose that your advertising is the answer." Damn right. David Ogilvy vacation italian summer If you, my fellow copywriters or art directors, want to win the award, devote your genius to making the cash register ring. David Ogilvy awards winning art Lazy and superficial men and women do not produce superior work. David Ogilvy superficial lazy men Claude Hopkins.. maintained that nobody with a college education could write an advertisement addressed to the mass millions. That's absolute poppycock. David Ogilvy advertising college writing Great hospitals do two things. They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people. David Ogilvy doctors two people Most headlines are set too big to be legible in the magazines or newspaper. Never approve a layout until you have seen it pasted into the magazine or newspaper for which it was destined. If you pin up the layouts on a bulletin board and appraise them from fifteen feet, you will produce posters. David Ogilvy magazines boards feet 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. David Ogilvy disability merit enemy It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially - like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye. David Ogilvy magazines eye men No sale, no commission. No commission, no eat. That made an impression on me. David Ogilvy impression made I never assign a product to a writer unless I know that he is personally interested in it. Every time I have written a bad campaign, it has been because the product did not interest me. David Ogilvy campaigns interest knows The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn't even verbal. It requires 'a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconscious.' The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked. David Ogilvy men ideas thinking
