Ogilvy on Advertising

When Aeschines spoke, they said, ‘How well he speaks.

It will help you recognize a big idea if you ask yourself five questions:

1 Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?

2 Do I wish I had thought of it myself?

3 Is it unique?

4 Does it fit the strategy to perfection?

Big ideas come from the unconscious.

You can do homework from now until doomsday, but you will never win fame and fortune unless you also invent big ideas. 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.

Nobody suggests that the printing press is evil because it is used to print pornography. It is also used to print the Bible.

A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man – what compulsions drive him, what instincts dominate his every action