42 Great Quotes About Advertising
Advertising is an integral part of consumer society.
It stimulates demand for goods and services and has contributed to the growth of the global economy and increased living standards.
Like anything, it has its downsides, but it's not clear that the world would be better without it.
Anyway. Enough of a preamble. Let’s get on with it.
We’ve picked forty-two of the most insightful quotes on the topic, hoping they will help you better understand this art form.
Some of them might even draw a smile.
1. “People hate advertising until they lose their cat.”
- David Droga, founder of Droga5 advertising agency
2. “Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.”
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, British historian, poet, and politician
3. “People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull...When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire".
- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency
4. “In good times people want to advertise; in bad times they have to.”
- Bruce Barton, American author, advertising executive, and politician
5. “I honestly believe that advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”
- Jerry Della Femina, American advertising executive and restaurateur
6. “An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove.”
– Robert Fleege, Freelance advertising agency art director
7. “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.”
– Steuart Henderson Britt, Professor of Marketing
8. “I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.”
– Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett
9. “Advertising stumbled upon it's greatest insight that everybody is really two people; the person you are and the person you want to be. All marketing is squarely aimed at person number two.”
- Terry O’Reilly, Host: Under The Influence - a podcast about the intersection of advertising & pop culture
10. “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
– Stephen Leacock, Canadian humourist, educator and lecturer
11. “An ad should be an appetizer, not a buffet.”
- Lee Clow, Chairman and global director of TBWA\Worldwide
12. “Advertising is totally unnecessary. Unless you hope to make money.”
- Jef I. Richards, Chair of the Department of Advertising & PR at Michigan State University
13. “Too many ads that try not to go over the reader's head end up beneath his notice.
- Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett
14. “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
- Stephen Leacock, Canadian humourist, educator and lecturer
15. “Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.”
- Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher
16. “Making work as creative as possible is imperative to making work that is effective”.
- James Hurman, Advertising effectiveness expert from New Zealand
17. “I’ve never found a client’s business problem that could be solved solely through advertising.”
- Lee Clow, Chairman and global director of TBWA\Worldwide
18. “If you're trying to persuade people to do something or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think."
- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency
19. “Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.”
- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB
20. “Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”
- Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett
21. “Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.”
– Fairfax M. Cone, American businessman and advertising executive
22. “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.”
– Howard Gossage, American advertising innovator during the "Mad Men" era
23. “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.”
– Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
24. “A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.”
- David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency
25. “A good ad should be like a good sermon: It must not only comfort the afflicted, it also must afflict the comfortable.”
– Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, American advertising executive
26. “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, American advertising executive and restaurateur
27. “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.”
- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB
28. “Advertising is legalized lying.”
– H. G. Wells, English writer
29. “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
- Mark Twain, American writer
30. “In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal”
- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB
31. “Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
- Leo Burnett, American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett
32. “Most car advertising assumes that people have IQs that are missing a digit”.
- Sergio Marchionne, former CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
33. “No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they'll see tomorrow”.
- Jan Koum, Co-founder of WhatsApp
34. “Advertising is the 'wonder' in Wonder Bread”.
- Jef I. Richards, Chair of the Department of Advertising & PR at Michigan State University
35. “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, founder of Ogilvy advertising agency
36. “Advertising - a judicious mixture of flattery and threats”.
- Herman Northrop Frye, Canadian literary critic
37. ”Creative without strategy is called 'art. ' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.”
- Jef I. Richards, Chair of the Department of Advertising & PR at Michigan State University
38. “The best advertising is done by satisfied customers."
- Philip Kotler, American marketing author
39. “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements”.
- George Norman Douglas, British writer
40. “Advertising isn't a science. It's persuasion. And persuasion is an art.”
- Bill Bernbach, American advertising creative director and co-founder of the ad agency DDB
41. “Doing business without advertising is like being a beautiful girl and thinking you’re going to meet Mr. Right because you’re beautiful. You have to get out there and let people know you exist.”
- Kevin Clark
42. “Advertising tries to be a pyromaniac, igniting conflagrations of desires for instant gratification.”
- George Will, American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator
