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Never Stop Testing, And Your Advertising Will Never Stop Improving.
-David Ogilvy
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Never Stop Testing, And

David Ogilvy
...
Never Stop Testing, And Your Advertising Will Never Stop Improving.

Understanding the Quote: "never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving...."

This quote by David Ogilvy reflects deeply on the theme of business. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Business, Testing Yourself, Advertising, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how David Ogilvy interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy is celebrated for insightful thoughts on business and testing yourself. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Business
Testing Yourself
Advertising
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H. L. Mencken Once Said That Nobody Ever Went Broke Underestimating The Taste Of The American Public. That Is Not True. I Have Come To Believe That It Pays To Make All Your Layouts Project A Feeling Of Good Taste, Provided That You Do It Unobtrusively. An Ugly Layout Suggests An Ugly Product. There Are Very Few Products Which Do Not Benefit From Being Given A First Class Ticket Through Life.
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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.
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I'd Like To Be Remembered, As A Copywriter Who Had Some Big Ideas. That's What The Advertising Business Is All About. Big Ideas
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You Now Have To Decide What 'image' You Want For Your Brand. Image Means Personality. Products, Like People, Have Personalities, And They Can Make Or Break Them In The Market Place.
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Great Marketing Only Makes A Bad Product Fail Faster.
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Repeat Your Winners. If You Are Lucky Enough To Write A Good Advertisement, Repeat It Until It Stops Selling. Scores Of Good Advertisements Have Been Discarded Before They Lost Their Potency.
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Readers Travel So Fast They Don't Stop To Decipher The Meaning Of Obscure Headlines.
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You Aren’t Advertising To A Standing Army; You Are Advertising To A Moving Parade.
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It Follows That Unless Your Headline Sells Your Product, You Have Wasted 90 Percent Of Your Money.
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Making The Logo Twice The Size Is Often A Good Thing To Do, Because Most Advertisements Are Deficient In Brand Identification. Showing The Clients' Faces Is Also A Better Stratagem Than It May Sound, Because The Public Is More Interested In Personalities Than In Corporations. Some Clients Can Be Projected As Human Symbols Of Their Own Products.
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If You Can’t Advertise Yourself, What Hope Do You Have Of Advertising Anything Else?
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...consumers Do Not Buy One Brand Of Soap, Or Coffee, Or Detergent. They Have A Repertory Of Four Or Five Brands, And Move From One To Another. They Almost Never Buy A Brand Which Has Not Been Admitted To Their Repertory During Its First Year On The Market.
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I Can't Stand Callow Amateurs Who Aren't Sufficiently Interested In The Craft Of Advertising To Assume The Posture Of Students.
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A Good Advertisement Is One Which Sells The Product Without Drawing Attention To Itself.
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Never Use Jargon Words Like 'reconceptualize', 'demassification', 'attitudinally', 'judgmentally'. They Are Hallmarks Of A Pretentious Ass.
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Nobody Should Be Allowed To Create General Advertising Until He Has Served His Apprenticeship In Direct-response
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Never Stop Testing, And Your Advertising Will Never Stop Improving. Testing Was Used In Advertising Decades Ago. The Internet Has Made Testing So Easy That Every Online Marketer Can Use It To Improve Advertising Results. Google Content Experiment Is A Free Tool For You To Do Split Testing.
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Try And Inject Into Every Commercial You Make A Touch Of Singularity; A Bird That Will Hook On To The Consumers Mind
Bird
Mind
Trying
There Are Now Unmistakeable Signs Of A Trend In Favor Of Superior Products At Premium Prices. The Consumer Is Not A Moron, She Is Your Wife.
Wife
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Advertising Is The Place Where The Selfish Interests Of The Manufacturer Coincide With The Interests Of Society.
Selfish
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Most Agencies Run Scared, Most Of The Time. . . .frightened People Are Powerless To Produce Good Advertising. . . . If I Were Aclient, I Would Do Everything In My Power To Emancipate My Agencies From Fear, Even To The Extent Of Giving Them Long-term Contracts.
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If It Doesn't Sell, It Isn't Creative.
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Do Not Address Your Readers As Though They Were Gathered Together In A Stadium. When People Read Your Copy, They Are Alone. Pretend You Are Writing To Each Of Them A Letter On Behalf Of Your Client.
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You Cannot Bore People Into Buying Your Product - You Can Only Interest Them In Buying It.
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Good Copy Can't Be Written With Tongue In Cheek, Written Just For A Living. You've Got To Believe In The Product.
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If You Want To Be Interesting, Be Interested.
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The Headline Is The 'ticket On The Meat.' Use It To Flag Down Readers Who Are Prospects For The Kind Of Product You Are Advertising.
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Some Manufacturers Illustrate Their Advertisements With Abstract Paintings. I Would Only Do This If I Wished To Conceal From The Reader What I Was Advertising.
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Much Of The Messy Advertising You See On Television Today Is The Product Of Committees. Committees Can Criticize Advertisements, But They Should Never Be Allowed To Create Them.
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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.
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Can Advertising Foist An Inferior Product On The Consumer? Bitter Experience Has Taught Me That It Cannot. On Those Rare Occasions When I Have Advertised Products Which Consumer Tests Have Found Inferior To Other Products In The Same Field, The Results Have Been Disastrous.
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I Avoid Clients For Whom Advertising Is Only A Marginal Factor In Their Marketing Mix. They Have An Awkward Tendency To Raid Their Advertising Appropriations Whenever They Need Cash For Other Purposes.
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I Know Of A Brewer Who Sells More Of His Beer To The People Who Never See His Advertising Than To The People Who See It Every Week. Bad Advertising Can Unsell A Product.
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The General Advertisers And Their Agencies Know Almost Nothing For Sure, Because They Cannot Measure The Results Of Their Advertising. They Worship At The Altar Of Creativity, Which Really Means 'originality': The Most Dangerous Word In The Lexicon Of Advertising
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While You Are Responsible To Your Clients For Sales Results, You Are Responsible To Consumers For The Kind Of Advertising You Bring Into Their Homes.
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I Have A Theory That The Best Ads Come From Personal Experience. Some Of The Good Ones I Have Done Have Really Come Out Of The Real Experience Of My Life, And Somehow This Has Come Over As True And Valid And Persuasive. People Love To Read Stories. They Like To Know You As A Real Person Who Has Your Struggle, Pain, Success And Failure, Etc. One Well-known Example Is Jared Fogle's Weight Loss Story Which Made Millions Of Dollars For Subway. Start To Collect Your Stories From Today And Use Them In Your Ad Campaigns.
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Nowadays It Is The Fashion To Pretend That No Single Individual Is Ever Responsible For A Successful Advertising Campaign. This Emphasis On "teamwork" Is Bunkum - A Conspiracy Of The Mediocre Majority.
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Consumers Do Not Buy Products. They Buy Product Benefits.
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If You Always Hire People Who Are Bigger Than You Are, We Shall Become A Company Of Giants
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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 Each Of Us Hires People Who Are Bigger Than We Are, We Shall Become A Company Of Giants.
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If You Want Action, Don’t Write. Go And Tell The Guy What You Want.
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The More Story-appeal There Is In The Picture Or In The Photograph, The More People Would Look At Your Ad
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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.
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Agencies Which Frequently Work Nights And Weekends Are More Stimulating, More Successful - And More Profitable.
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It Takes Uncommon Guts To Stick To One Style In The Face Of All The Pressures To 'come Up With Something New' Every Six Months. It Is Tragically Easy To Be Stampeded Into Change. But Golden Rewards Await The Advertiser Who Has The Brains To Create A Coherent Image, And The Stability To Stick With It Over A Long Period.
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I Always Said That Mega-mergers Were For Megalomaniacs.
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I Never Tell One Client That I Cannot Attend His Sales Convention Because I Have A Previous Engagement With Another Client; Successful Polygamy Depends Upon Pretending To Each Spouse That She Is The Only Pebble On Your Beach.
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Nobody Ever Arrives At A Very Big Idea Through A Conscious, Rational Thought Process. It Comes From Your Unconscious.
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In Most Agencies, Account Executives Outnumber The Copywriters Two To One. If You Were A Dairy Farmer, Would You Employ Twice As Many Milkers As You Had Cows?
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The Only Marketers Who Know What The Hell They're Doing Are Those Who Have Worked In Sales
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Knows
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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.
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I Have A Theory That The Best Ads Come From Personal Experience. Some Of The Good Ones I Have Done Have Really Come Out Of The Real Experience Of My Life, And Somehow This Has Come Over As True And Valid And Persuasive.
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Develop Your Eccentricities Early, And No One Will Think You're Going Senile Later In Life
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Eccentricity
To Advertisers: "do Not Compete With Your Agency In The Creative Area. Why Keep A Dog And Bark Yourself?"
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If You Can’t Be Brilliant, At Least Be Memorable
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I Have Noticed That Agencies Which Are Full Of Fun And Ferment Seem To Create The Best Advertising. If You Are Not Happy In Advertising, For Goodness Sake Find A Job In Which You Would Be Happy. For As Far As I Know, We Pass This Way Only Once
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Fun
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One Half Was Sad Because I Had Damaged My Reputation. The Other Half Was Happy Because I Had Damaged My Reputation.
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Shakespeare Wrote His Sonnets Within A Strict Discipline, Fourteen Lines Of Iambic Pentameter, Rhyming In Three Quatrains And A Couplet. Were His Sonnets Dull? Mozart Wrote His Sonatas Within An Equally Rigid Discipline - Exposition, Development, And Recapitulation. Were They Dull?.
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Development
You Will Never Win Fame And Fortune Unless You Invent Big Ideas.
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Experience Has Taught Me That Advertisers Get The Best Results When They Pay Their Agency A Flat Fee. It Is Unrealistic To Expect Your Agency To Be Impartial When Its Vested Interest Lies Wholly In The Direction Of Increasing Your Commissionable Advertising.
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Advertising People Who Ignore Research Are As Dangerous As Generals Who Ignore Decodes Of Enemy Signals.
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What You Say In Advertising Is More Important Than How You Say It.
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I Never Write Fewer Than Sixteen Headlines For A Single Advertisement.
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Sixteen
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David Ogilvy Made His Copywriters Come Up 100 Different Headlines For Every Ad They Wrote.
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Made
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It's Not Creative Unless It Sells.
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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
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Technique
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The Advertisers Who Believe In The Selling Power Of Jingles Have Never Had To Sell Anything.
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Talent, I Believe, Is Most Likely To Be Found Among Nonconformists, Dissenters, And Rebels.
Business
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It Takes A Big Idea To Attract The Attention Of Consumers And Get Them To Buy Your Product. Unless Your Advertising Contains A Big Idea, It Will Pass Like A Ship In The Night. I Doubt If More Than One Campaign In A Hundred Contains A Big Idea.
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Hire People Who Are Better Than You Are, Then Leave Them To Get On With It. Look For People Who Will Aim For The Remarkable, Who Will Not Settle For The Routine.
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Our Offices Must Always Be Headed By The Kind Of Men Who Command Respect. Not Phonies, Zeros Or Bastards.
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There Are Very Few Men Of Genius In Advertising Agencies. But We Need All We Can Find. Almost Without Exception They Are Disagreeable. Don't Destroy Them. They Lay Golden Eggs.
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You Aren't Advertising To A Standing Army; You Are Advertising To A Moving Parade. Three Million Consumers Get Married Every Year. The Advertisement Which Sold A Refrigerator To Those Who Got Married Last Year Will Probably Be Just As Successful With Those Who'll Get Married Next Year. An Advertisement Is Just Like A Radar Sweep, Constantly Hunting New Prospects As They Come Into The Market. Get A Good Radar And Keep It Sweeping.
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Study The Methods Of Your Competitors And Do The Exact Opposite.
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We Exist To Build The Business Of Our Clients. The Recommendations We Make To Them Should Be The Recommendations We Would Make If We Owned Their Companies, Without Regard To Our Own Short-term Interest. This Earns Their Respect, Which Is The Greatest Asset We Can Have.
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Should
Great Hospitals Do Two Things. They Look After Patients, And They Teach Young Doctors. We Look After Clients, And We Teach Young Advertising People.
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There Is One Catagory Of Advertising Which Is Totally Uncontrolled And Flagrantly Dishonest: The Television Commercials For Candidates In Presidential Elections.
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Presidential
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?
Book
Tonight
Instinct
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.
People
Giving
Boss
I Don't Believe In Tricky Advertising, I Don't Believe In Cute Advertising, I Don't Believe In Comic Advertising. The People Who Perpetrate That Kind Of Advertising Never Had To Sell Anything In Their Lives
Cute
Believe
People
I Once Used The Word Obsolete In A Headline, Only To Discover That 43 Per Cent Of Housewives Had No Idea What It Meant. In Another Headline, I Used The Word Ineffable, Only To Discover That I Didn't Know What It Meant Myself.
Ideas
Ineffable
Used
You Have Only 30 Seconds In A Tv Commercial. If You Grab Attention In The First Frame With A Visual Surprise, You Stand A Better Chance Of Holding The Viewer. People Screen Out A Lot Of Commercials Because They Open With Something Dull. When You Advertise Fire-extinguishers, Open With The Fire.
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People
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Many Manufacturers Secretly Question Whether Advertising Really Sells Their Product, But Are Vaguely Afraid That Their Competitors Might Steal A March On Them If They Stopped.
Might
March
Advertising
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.
Eye
Past
People
We All Have A Tendency To Use Research As A Drunkard Uses A Lamppost – For Support, Not For Illumination.
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Support
Use
Any Damn Fool Can Put On A Deal, But It Takes Genius, Faith And Perseverance To Create A Brand.
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Business
Genius
What Really Decides Consumers To Buy Or Not To Buy Is The Content Of Your Advertising, Not Its Form.
Business
Insightful
Marketing
Senior Men Have No Monopoly On Great Ideas. Nor Do Creative People. Some Of The Best Ideas Come From Account Executives, Researchers And Others. Encourage This, You Need All The Ideas You Can Get.
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The Mission Of A Great School Is Not To Cram You With Facts So That You Can Regurgitate Them...this Gives Many Boys Such A Distaste For Learning That They Never Read Another Book As Long As They Live. No, The Mission Is To Inspire You With A Taste For Scholarship - A Taste Which Will Last You All Your Life.
Book
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Boys
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.
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I Have An Inviolable Rule Against Employing Nepots And Spouses, Because They Breed Politics. Whenever Two People Get Married, One Of Them Must Depart - Preferably The Female, To Look After The Baby.
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Two
Play To Win, But Enjoy The Fun.
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Winning
Play
If Each Of Us Hires People Who Are Smaller Than We Are, We Shall Become A Company Of Dwarfs. But If Each Of Us Hires People Who Are Bigger Than We Are, We Shall Become A Company Of Giants.
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Unless Your Campaign Has A Big Idea, It Will Pass Like A Ship In The Night.
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Ideas
Marketing
Where People Aren't Having Any Fun, They Seldom Produce Good Work.
Fun
People
Design
Headlines Can Be Strengthend By The Inclusion Of Emotional Words Like Darling, Love, Fear, Proud, Friend And Baby.
Baby
Emotional
Proud
Claude Hopkins.. Maintained That Nobody With A College Education Could Write An Advertisement Addressed To The Mass Millions. That's Absolute Poppycock.
Writing
College
Advertising
Big Ideas Are Usually Simple Ideas.
Simple
Ideas
Bigs
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.
Summer
Italian
Vacation
At 60 Miles An Hour The Loudest Noise In This Rolls-royce Comes From The Electric Clock.
Noise
Hours
Clock
Give People A Taste Of Old Crow, And Tell Them It's Old Crow. Then Give Them Another Taste Of Old Crow, But Tell Them It's Jack Daniel's. Ask Them Which They Prefer. They'll Think The Two Drinks Are Quite Different. They Are Tasting Images
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Two
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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.
Teamwork
Baseball
Running
We Admire People Who Work Hard, Who Are Objective And Thorough. We Detest Office Politicians, Toadies, Bullies, And Pompous Asses. We Abhor Ruthlessness. The Way Up Our Ladder Is Open To Everybody. In Promoting People To Top Jobs, We Are Influenced As Much By Their Character As Anything Else.
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Character
Hard Work
I Prefer The Discipline Of Knowledge To The Anarchy Of Ignorance.
Ignorance
Discipline
Anarchy
When You Advertise Fire Extinguishers, Open With The Fire.
Fire
Fire Extinguishers
My Motto Has Always Been: Only First Class Business And That In A First Class Way
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Way
Firsts
The Best Ideas Come As Jokes. Make Your Thinking As Funny As Possible.
Creativity
Humor
Thinking
If You Have All The Research, All The Ground Rules, All The Directives, All The Data - It Doesn't Mean The Ad Is Written. Then You've Got To Close The Door And Write Something - That Is The Moment Of Truth Which We All Try To Postpone As Long As Possible.
Business
Writing
Mean
The Success Of A Meeting Often Depends On Having The Right Documents - Proofs, Artwork, Schedules, Research Charts, Etc. - Present At The Start Of The Meeting. All Too Often We Arrive Like Plumbers, Leaving Our Tools Behind.
Leaving
Tools
Schedules
Don't Hire A Dog, Then Bark Yourself
Dog
Creativity
Creative
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.
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Merit
Disability
Tell The Truth, But Make The Truth Fascinating.
Telling The Truth
Fascinating
It's The Lack Of Ambition That Cripples Most People, And Makes Them So Pedestrian In The Advertising/creative Business
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People
Creative
People Who Think Well, Write Well
Writing
Thinking
People
Within Every Brand Is A Product, But Not Every Product Is A Brand.
Brands
Products
No Sale, No Commission. No Commission, No Eat. That Made An Impression On Me.
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Impression
Leaders Grasp Nettles.
Leadership
Leader
Nettles
When You Have Nothing To Say, Sing It.
Advertising
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.
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Men
Magazines
Why Do Eight Out Of Ten New Consumer Products Fail? Sometimes Because They Are Too New. The First Cold Cereals Were Rejected By Consumers. More Often New Products Fail Because They Are Not New Enough.
Failure
Eight
Cereal
You Make The Best Products You Can, And You Grow As Fast As You Deserve To.
Business
Achievement
Growth
Big Ideas Come From The Unconscious. This Is True In Art, In Science, And In Advertising. But Your Unconscious Has To Be Well Informed, Or Your Idea Will Be Irrelevant. Stuff Your Conscious Mind With Information, Then Unhook Your Rational Thought Process. You Can Help This Process By Going For A Long Walk, Or Taking A Hot Bath, Or Drinking Half A Pint Of Claret. Suddenly, If The Telephone Line From Your Unconscious Is Open, A Big Idea Wells Up Within You.
Art
Business
Drinking
Never Write More Than Two Pages On Any Subject.
Writing
Two
Pages
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
Jobs
Trying
Ambitious
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.
Lying
Government
Buying
Once Upon A Time I Was Riding On The Top Of A First Avenue Bus, When I Heard A Mythical Housewife Say To Another, "molly, My Dear, I Would Have Bought That New Brand Of Toilet Soap If Only They Hadn't Set The Body Copy In Ten Point Garamond." Don't You Believe It. What Really Decides Consumers To Buy Or Not To Buy Is The Content Of Your Advertising, Not Its Form.
Believe
Once Upon A Time
Riding
Nobody Has Ever Built A Brand By Imitating Somebody Else's Advertising.
Advertising
Irritating
Advertisement Negative
What You Learn Is More Important Than What You Earn.
Important
The Consumer Isn't A Moron; She Is Your Wife. You Insult Her Intelligence If You Assume That A Mere Slogan And A Few Vapid Adjectives Will Persuade Her To Buy Anything. She Wants All The Information You Can Give Her.
Giving
Wife
Vapid
Encourage Innovation. Change Is Our Lifeblood, Stagnation Our Death Knell.
Innovation
Stagnation
The Trouble With Many Copywriters In General Agencies Are That They Don't Really Think In Terms Of Selling. They Have Never Written Direct-response; They Have Never Tasted Blood
Thinking
Agency
Blood
Our Business Is Infested With Idiots Who Try To Impress By Using Pretentious Jargon.
Business
Trying
Jargon
The Worst Fault A Salesman Can Commit Is To Be A Bore. Foster Any Attempt To Talk About Other Things; The Longer You Stay The Better You Get To Know The Prospect, And The More You Will Be Trusted.
Faults
Worst
Bores
Few Of The Great Creators Have Bland Personalities. They Are Cantankerous Egotists, The Kind Of Men Who Are Unwelcome In The Modern Corporation.
Men
Personality
Corporations
If You, My Fellow Copywriters Or Art Directors, Want To Win The Award, Devote Your Genius To Making The Cash Register Ring.
Art
Winning
Awards
I Had A Friend Who Was The King's Surgeon In England. One Day I Asked Him What Makes A Great Surgeon. He Replied, "what Distinguishes A Great Surgeon Is His Knowledge. He Knows More Than Other Surgeons. During An Operation He Finds Something Which He Wasn't Expecting, Recognizes It And Knows What To Do About It." It's The Same Thing With Advertising People. The Good Ones Know More. How Do You Get To Know More? By Reading Books About Advertising. By Picking The Brains Of People Who Know More Than You Do. From The Magic Lanterns. And From Experience.
Kings
Book
Reading
I Always Use My Clients' Products. This Is Not Toady-ism, But Elementary Good Manners.
Good Man
Use
Isms
People Don't Buy A New Detergent Because The Manufacturer Told A Joke On Television Last Night.
Night
People
Television
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, The Language They Use Every Day, The Language In Which They Think. We Try To Write In The Vernacular.
Business
Writing
Thinking
The Relationship Between A Manufacturer And His Advertising Agency Is Almost As Intimate As The Relationship Between A Patient And His Doctor. Make Sure That You Can Life Happily With Your Prospective Client Before You Accept His Account.
Agency
Doctors
Perspective
Why Should A Manufacturer Bet His Money, Perhaps The Future Of His Company, On Your Instinct?
Business
Advertising
Instinct
Ninety-nine Percent Of Advertising Doesn't Sell Much Of Anything.
Business
Ninety Nine
Advertising
Political Advertising Ought To Be Stopped. It's The Only Really Dishonest Kind Of Advertising That's Left. It's Totally Dishonest.
Political
Dishonesty
Kind
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.
Responsibility
Beer
Men
The Manufacturer Who Finds Himself Up The Creek Is The Short-sighted Opportunist Who Siphons Off All His Advertising Dollars For Short-term Promotions.
Dollars
Advertising
Promotion
If You Ever Find A Man Who Is Better Than You Are - Hire Him. If Necessary, Pay Him More Than You Pay Yourself.
Men
Pay
Better Than You
What Is A Good Advertisement? An Advertisement Which Pleases You Because Of Its Style, Or An Advertisement Which Sells The Most? They Are Seldom The Same.
Style
Please
Advertisements
Advertising Is A Business Of Words, But Advertising Agencies Are Infested With Men And Women Who Cannot Write. They Cannot Write Advertisements, And They Cannot Write Plans. They Are Helpless As Deaf Mutes On The Stage Of The Metropolitan Opera.
Writing
Men
Agency
Many People - And I Think I Am One Of Them - Are More Productive When They've Had A Little To Drink. I Find If I Drink Two Or Three Brandies, I'm Far Better Able To Write.
Work
Writing
Thinking
If It Is Something Important, Get A Colleague To Improve It.
Important
Colleagues
Ifs
The Consumer Isn't A Moron; She Is Your Wife.
Funny
Sarcastic
Witty
On The Average, Five Times As Many People Read The Headline As Read The Body Copy. When You Have Written Your Headline, You Have Spent Eighty Cents Out Of Your Dollar.
Business
Average
People
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.
Running
Dream
Morning
A Consumer Is Not A Moron. She's Your Wife. Don't Insult Her Intelligence, And Don't Shock Her.
Wife
Insult
Shock
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.
Business
Thinking
Honest
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.
Campaigns
Interest
Knows
Consumers Still Buy Products Whose Advertising Promises Them Value For Money, Beauty, Nutrition, Relief From Suffering, Social Status And So On.
Promise
Suffering
Relief
Does Advertising Corrupt Editors? Yes It Does, But Fewer Editors Than You May Suppose... The Vast Majority Of Editors Are Incorruptible.
Editors
Majority
Doe
Don't Bunt. Aim Out Of The Ball Park. Aim For The Company Of Immortals.
Design
Excellence
Balls
I Did Not Feel 'evil' When I Wrote Advertisements For Puerto Rico. They Helped Attract Industry And Tourists To A Country Which Had Been Living On The Edge Of Starvation For 400 Years.
Country
Years
Evil
I Do Not Regard Advertising As Entertainment Or An Art Form, But As A Medium Of Information. When I Write An Advertisement, I Don’t Want You To Tell Me That You Find It ‘creative.’ I Want You To Find It So Interesting That You Buy The Product.
Art
Writing
Interesting
Write The Way You Talk. Naturally.
Writing
Way
I Admire People With Gentle Manners Who Treat Other People As Human Beings.
People
Manners
Treats
It Has Been Found That The Less An Advertisement Looks Like An Advertisement And The More It Looks Like An Editorial, The More Readers Stop, Look, And Read.
Business
Looks
Advertising
Consumers Don't Think How They Feel. They Don't Say What They Think And They Don't Do What They Say.
Thinking
Emotion
Advertising
There Is No Need For Advertisements To Look Like Advertisements. If You Make Them Look Like Editorial Pages, You Will Attract About 50 Per Cent More Readers.
Business
Needs
Looks
I Notice Increasing Reluctance On The Part Of Marketing Executives To Use Judgment; They Are Coming To Rely Too Much On Research, And They Use It As A Drunkard Uses A Lamp Post For Support, Rather Than For Illumination.
Illumination
Support
Marketing
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.
Pride
Finals
Lines
Advertising Is Only Evil When It Advertises Evil Things.
Evil
Marketing
Advertising Business
Don’t Just Create Content To Get Credit For Being Clever — Create Content That Will Be Helpful, Insightful, Or Interesting For Your Target Audience.
Clever
Target Audience
Interesting
There Isn’t Any Significant Difference Between The Various Brands Of Whiskey, Or Cigarettes Or Beer. They Are All About The Same. And So Are The Cake Mixes And The Detergents, And The Margarines… The Manufacturer Who Dedicates His Advertising To Building The Most Sharply Defined Personality For His Brand Will Get The Largest Share Of The Market At The Highest Profit.
Beer
Cake
Differences
The Worst Fault A Salesman Can Commit Is To Be A Bore...... Pretend To Be Vastly Interested In Any Subject The Prospects Shows An Interest In.
Faults
Worst
Interest
It Is The Inescapable Duty Of Management To Fire Incompetent People.
Fire
People
Management
We Like People Who Are Honest. Honest In Argument, Honest With Clients, Honest With Suppliers, Honest With The Company - And Above All, Honest With Consumers.
People
Clients
Honest
Always Hold Your Sales Meetings In Rooms Too Small For The Audience, Even If It Means Holding Them In The Wc. 'standing Room Only' Creates An Atmosphere Of Success, As In Theatres And Restaurants, While A Half-empty Auditorium Smells Of Failure.
Mean
Smell
Atmosphere
Don't Count The People That You Reach, Reach The People Who Count
People
A Lot Of Today's Campaigns Are Based On Optimum Positioning But Are Totally Ineffective - Because They Are Dull, Or Badly Constructed, Or Ineptly Written. If Nobody Reads Your Advertisement Or Looks At Your Commercial, It Doesn't Do You Much Good To Have The Right Positioning.
Campaigns
Looks
Dull
The Secret Of Long Life Is Double Careers. One To About Age Sixty, Then Another For The Next Thirty Years.
Work
Years
Careers
Positioning Should Be Decided Before The Advertising Is Created
Advertising
Should
Decided
The Temptation To Entertain Instead Of Selling Is Contagious.
Temptation
Selling
Contagious
The Best Idea Is The Simplest.
Ideas
Simplest
Make Sure You Have A Vice President In Charge Of Your Revolution, To Engender Ferment Among Your More Conventional Colleagues.
President
Vices
Revolution
Sound An Alarm! Advertising, Not Deals, Builds Brands.
Alarms
Sound
Advertising
If You Ever Have The Good Fortune To Create A Great Advertising Campaign, You Will Soon See Another Agency Steal It. This Is Irritating, But Don't Let It Worry You; Nobody Has Ever Built A Brand By Imitating Somebody Else's Advertising.
Business
Agency
Worry
Hard Work Never Killed A Man. Men Die Of Boredom, Psychological Conflict, And Disease. They Do Not Die Of Hard Work.
Hard Work
Men
Boredom
Never Write An Advertisement Which You Wouldn't Want Your Family To Read. You Wouldn't Tell Lies To Your Own Wife. Don't Tell Them To Mine.
Business
Lying
Writing
In The Modern World Of Business, It Is Useless To Be A Creative, Original Thinker Unless You Can Also Sell What You Create.
Inspirational
Business
Creativity
Many Of The Greatest Creations Of Man Have Been Inspired By The Desire To Make Money...if Oxford Undergraduates Were Paid For Their Work, I Would Have Performed Miracles Of Scholarship And Become Regius Professor Of Modern History.
Education
Men
Creation Of Man
The Psychiatrists Say That Everybody Should Have A Hobby. The Hobby I Recommend Is Advertising
Should Have
Hobbies
Advertising
The Majority Of Business Men Are Not Capable Of An Original Thought, Simply Because They Cannot Escape The Tyranny Of Reason.
Men
Majority
Original Thought
Training Should Not Be Confined To Trainees. It Should Be A Continuous Process, And Should Include The Entire Professional Staff Of The Agency. The More Our People Learn, The More Useful They Can Be To Our Clients.
Agency
People
Training
Creativity Needs Discipline And Freedom.
Creativity
Discipline
Needs
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