David Ogilvy

What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.

— David Ogilvy

The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.

— David Ogilvy

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.

— David Ogilvy

If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

— David Ogilvy

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.

— 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

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.

— David Ogilvy

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.

— David Ogilvy

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.

— David Ogilvy

The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.

— David Ogilvy