David Ogilvy is perhaps the greatest copywriter of all time. I know I take pride in being trained as a writer at Ogilvy & Mather, the international advertising agency founded by David Ogilvy.

Here are some of his precepts that make good advertising:

The purpose of a commercial is not to entertain the viewer but to sell him

A lot of advertisements and television commercials look like minutes of a committee meeting, and that is what they are.

Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.

No-one was ever bored into buying a product

We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarcy of ignorance.

Only first class business, and that in a first class way

Unless your campaign contains a Big Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night