We read advertisements to discover and enlarge our desires. We are always ready—even eager—to discover, from the announcement of a new product, what we have all along wanted without really knowing it.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.
—Enoch Powell (1912–98) English Conservative Politician, Scholar
If you are writing about baloney, don’t try and make it Cornish hen, because that’s the worst kind of baloney there is. Just make it darn good baloney.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
Advertising is not merely an assembly of competing messages; it is a language itself which is always being used to make the same general proposal
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-born American Educator, Author
That’s the kind of ad I like: facts, facts, facts.
—Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) Polish-born American Film Producer, Businessperson
It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
If advertising had a little more respect for the public, the public would have a lot more respect for advertising.
—James Randolph Adams (1898–1956) American Advertising Executive
It has become a certainty now that if you will only advertise sufficiently you may make a fortune by selling anything.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
Advertising – a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.
—Northrop Frye
Advertisements are of great use to the vulgar. First of all, as they are instruments of ambition. A man that is by no means big enough for the Gazette, may easily creep into the advertisements; by which means we often see an apothecary in the same paper of news with a plenipotentiary, or a running footman with an ambassador.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
One ad is worth more to a paper than forty editorials.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch.
—J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) English Novelist, Playwright, Critic
Some years before birth, advertise for a couple of parents both belonging to long-lived families.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
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.
—Jerry Della Femina (b.1936) American Advertising Executive
Political advertising ought to be stopped. It’s the only really dishonest kind of advertising that’s left. It’s totally dishonest.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
—Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) Canadian Political Scientist, Humorist
Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
Good things sell themselves; those that are bad have to be advertised.
—African Proverb
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
Those who prefer their English sloppy have only themselves to thank if the advertisement writer uses his mastery of vocabulary and syntax to mislead their weak minds.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
Plan the sale when you plan the ad.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
The trouble with us in America isn’t that the poetry of life has turned to prose, but that it has turned to advertising copy.
—Louis Kronenberger (1904–80) American Drama, Literary Critic
Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
Advertising is of the very essence of democracy. An election goes on every minute of the business day across the counters of hundreds of thousands of stores and shops where the customers state their preferences and determine which manufacturer and which product shall be the leader today, and which shall lead tomorrow.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American Author, Advertising Executive, Politician
The modern little red riding hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objections to being eaten by the wolf.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator