Ogilvy on Advertising

Promote from within or hire from outside? ‘Mr. Morgan buys his partners,’ said Andrew Carnegie; ‘I grow mine.’

It helps if the point of difference goes hand-in-hand with a chord of familiarity that links the new product to the consumer’s past experience – a disposable diaper, a light beer, a diet cola, a paper towel.

The Benton & Bowles agency holds that ‘if it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.’ Amen.

The majority of campaigns fail to give consumers enough information.

The present President of Young & Rubicam has said that ‘Rubicam played a marvelous dirty trick on the rest of us – he didn’t leave behind a list of rules.’ He did, however, leave behind an aphorism which appeals to the present generation at Young & Rubicam: resist the usual. Or, as his copy chief Roy Whittier put it, ‘In advertising, the be

‘If you and your competitors all make excellent products, don’t try to imply that your product is better. Just say what’s good about your product – and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it.

Now consider how you want to ‘position’ your product. This curious

Five tips 1 Never allow two people to do a job which one could do.

I advise you to include the brand name in your headline. If you don’t, 80 per cent of readers (who don’t read your body copy) will never know what product you are advertising.

My own definition is ‘what the product does, and who it is for.’ I could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar for women with dry skin. This is still working 25 years later.