David Ogilvy

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.

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.

The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.

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.

The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.

First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.

I get my design inspiration from Christian Dior and Chanel.

Selling is our No. 1 job. Never get away from selling a lot of merchandise personally. The more you sell the more you learn.

We were all young and we were all inventing our careers. I was very close to Jackson, just as I’d been very close to Laura Nyro. With each person I had a unique relationship.

What’s the quickest way to become a millionaire? Borrow fivers off everyone you meet.

[In 1990 on the president of MCA calling and saying ‘We’re going to make you the biggest offer this company has ever made, and I’m going to send it to you by messenger right now.’] It’s 1990. Send me a fax.

I must have had a dozen jobs and I got fired from all of them.

Employers only handle the money – it is the customer who pays the wages.

Work mixed with management becomes not only easier but more profitable. The time is past when anyone can boast about ‘hard work’ without having a corresponding result to show for it.

America is not a land of money but of wealth-not a land of rich people, but of successful workers.

If you need a machine and don’t buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don’t have it.

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.

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.

Listen – it makes you sound smarter.

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

First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.