Ogilvy on Advertising

At the start of your career in advertising, what you learn is more important than what you earn.

The man who said the wisest things about leadership was Field Marshal Montgomery: ‘The leader must have infectious optimism, and the determination to persevere in the face of difficulties. He must also radiate confidence, even when he himself is not too certain of the outcome. ‘The final test of a leader is the feeling you have when you leave his p

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Aldous Huxley, who was once a copywriter, said, ‘It is easier to write ten passably effective sonnets than one effective advertisement.’ You cannot bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it.

Very few advertisements are read by more than one reader in 20. I conclude that editors communicate better than admen.

When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: ‘If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if e

When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.

Remember the French saying: ‘He who is absent is always wrong.’

First, study the product you are going to advertise. The more you know about it, the more likely you are to come up with a big idea for selling it.