David Ogilvy

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

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

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.

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.

Political advertising ought to be stopped. It’s the only really dishonest kind of advertising that’s left. It’s totally dishonest.

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.

I think everybody thought I was crazy that I quit my job and started a management company in which I was managing one client – Laura Nyro.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

No human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient [for] the duty of superintending the industry of private people … towards the employment most suitable to the interest of the society.

Hire character. Train skill.

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.

Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine.

Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.

Investors have very short memories.

Business is the art of extracting money from another man’s pocket without resorting to violence.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

My mother taught me to love my work. I learned everything about business from her.

No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn’t.

If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.

I don’t know the exact details of his background but from what I have read Mr. Abramovich had a very humble start in life and has made his own luck.

We have a very open culture at the company, where we foster a lot of interaction between not just me and people but between everyone else. It’s an open floor plan. People have these desks where no one really has an office. I mean, I have a room where I meet with people. But it has all glass, so everyone can see into it and see what’s going on.