David Ogilvy

Who was David Ogilvy?

David Mackenzie Ogilvy, CBE, was an advertising executive who was widely hailed as "The Father of Advertising". In 1962, Time called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry."

Famous Quotes:

• 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.
• What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.
• I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.
• I don't know the rules of grammar. If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.
• 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.
• Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. 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. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.
• If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.
• The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace.
• The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
• The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.