Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Advertising – a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.
—Northrop Frye
The most common trouble with advertising is that it tries too hard to impress people.
—James Randolph Adams (1898–1956) American Advertising Executive
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
Advertising is the principal reason why the businessman has come to inherit the earth.
—James Randolph Adams (1898–1956) American Advertising Executive
Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Advertising is one of the few callings in which it is advisable to pay attention to someone else’s business.
—Howard W. Newton
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
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
—Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British-born American Film Director, Film Producer
Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-born American Educator, Author
As a profession advertising is young; as a force it is as old as the world. The first four words ever uttered, “Let there be light,” constitute its charter. All nature is vibrant with its impulse.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American Author, Advertising Executive, Politician
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
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 the mother of trade.
—Japanese Proverb
History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people constantly to want things, want this, want that.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–90) English Journalist, Author, Media Personality, Satirist
That’s the kind of ad I like: facts, facts, facts.
—Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) Polish-born American Film Producer, Businessperson
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 a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
—Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
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
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
In advertising, not to be different is virtual suicide.
—William Bernbach (1911–82) American Advertising Executive
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
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
Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
—Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) Canadian Political Scientist, Humorist
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
As advertising blather becomes the nation’s normal idiom, language becomes printed noise.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
Advertisers are the interpreters of our dreams—Joseph interpreting for Pharaoh. Like the movies, they infect the routine futility of our days with purposeful adventure. Their weapons are our weaknesses: fear, ambition, illness, pride, selfishness, desire, ignorance. And these weapons must be kept as bright as a sword.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
—William Bernbach (1911–82) American Advertising Executive
The advertiser is the over rewarded court jester and court pander at the democratic court.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American Writer, Critic, Naturalist