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
The art of advertisement, after the American manner, has introduced into all our life such a lavish use of superlatives, that no standard of value whatever is intact.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
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
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
Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Advertising is legalized lying.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
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
Advertising – a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.
—Northrop Frye
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
Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret … to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
—Jerry Della Femina (b.1936) American Advertising Executive
Ideally, advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors. Using handicraft methods, it stretches out toward the ultimate electronic goal of a collective consciousness.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interest them, and sometimes it’s an ad.
—Howard Luck Gossage (1917–69) American Ad Executive
Marriage is a good deal like a circus: there is not as much in it as is represented in the advertising
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.
—Charles H. Revson (1906–75) American Businessman
I have discovered the most exciting, the most arduous literary form of all, the most difficult to master, the most pregnant in curious possibilities. I mean the advertisement. It is far easier to write ten passably effective Sonnets, good enough to take in the not too inquiring critic, than one effective advertisement that will take in a few thousand of the uncritical buying public.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Satirist, Short Story Writer
Advertising is the principal reason why the businessman has come to inherit the earth.
—James Randolph Adams (1898–1956) American Advertising Executive
Sanely applied advertising could remake the world.
—Stuart Chase (1888–1985) American Economist, Engineer, Author
Advertising is the genie which is transforming America into a place of comfort, luxury and ease for millions.
—William Allen White (1868–1944) American Journalist, Author, Editor
The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
The sole purpose of business is service. The sole purpose of advertising is explaining the service which business renders.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
That’s the kind of ad I like: facts, facts, facts.
—Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) Polish-born American Film Producer, Businessperson
What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
—William Bernbach (1911–82) American Advertising Executive
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