Ogilvy on Advertising
David Ogilvy · 1983
Ogilvy on Advertising (1983) is a book by David Ogilvy on Advertising & Copywriting. David Ogilvy distills a career of research-driven campaigns into blunt rules for headlines, body copy, television, and clients, arguing that advertising exists to sell, and that what sells is knowable.
The most quotable ad man who ever lived explains, without mystique, exactly which advertising sells and which merely entertains.
Three of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Ogilvy on Advertising pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.
- Ogilvy's founding creed is that advertising is not entertainment or art but a medium of information, he quotes approvingly the rival agency motto that if it doesn't sell, it isn't creative, no matter how many awards it wins.
- Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy, so a headline that fails to promise a benefit or contain news has already wasted most of the budget.
- The two most powerful words in a headline are 'free' and 'new', plain, unglamorous words that many advertisers nonetheless shy away from.
The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 8 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- Advertising Is Not Art
- How to Get a Job and Run an Agency
- How to Produce Advertising That Sells
- Headlines, Illustrations, Body Copy
- Television That Sells
- Corporate, Direct Response, and Difficult Categories
- The Client Relationship
- The Coming Changes and What Endures
Finish Ogilvy on Advertising tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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