David Ogilvy Quotes

I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.

Advertising is 'an evil service'.

I can not think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil.

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

I wish all consumers were as gullible as advertising's biggest critics. Anyone who believes advertising is that powerful will believe almost anything.

Advertising at its worst will be killed by the Internet. And rightly so.

What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public.

Political commercials encourage the deceptive, the destructive and the degrading.

Dealing with ads is depressing. You don't make anyone's life better by making advertisements work better.

If people ever talked the way advertising sounded, they would be put away.

No, I most certainly do not think advertising people are wonderful. I think they are horrible, and the worst menace to mankind, next to war; perhaps ahead of war. They stand for the material viewpoint, for the importance of possessions, of desire, of envy, of greed. And war comes from these things.

advertisement ... has brought our disregard for truth into the open without even a figleaf to cover it.

We have to move from making good advertising, to making advertising good.

If there are signs that Americans bow to the gods of advertising, there are equally indications that people find the gods ridiculous. It is part of the popular culture that advertisements are silly.

There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster.

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

One thing I've always been concerned about is the objectification of women in ads, and that's one thing where I was like, 'Well, if I become a part of advertising, I could change that.'

I said during the course of the campaign I didn't like it and I don't like the idea of having an opponent's picture on your ads and it would be nice to see candidates sign a pledge like that.

I view advertising as being this romanticizing element that helps us appreciate, understand and enjoy how remarkable it is that we've been able to do so much, and learn so much. I view it as really vital, even though sometimes it can be really annoying.

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.

Telling lies does not work in advertising.

What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

In political advertising, truth only has an advantage when a credible source makes it known.

Negative advertising is the only way voters can find out that a candidate may be unfit for public office.

It’s attack advertising. It’s dirty tricks advertising. It’s dishonest and lowers the level of the political conversation.