ADVERTISING QUOTES IV

quotations about advertising

Judicious advertising is the corner stone of success.

BYRON W. ORR

The Clothier and Furnisher, Jan. 1890

Tags: success


It has been said, no doubt in good faith and certainly with some reason, that advertising as currently carried on gives the body of consumers valuable information and guidance as to the ways and means whereby their wants can be satisfied and their purchasing power can be best utilized. To the extent to which this holds true, advertising is a service to the community. But there is a large reservation to be made on this head. Advertising is competitive; the greater part of it aims to divert purchases ... from one channel to another channel of the same general class. And to the extent to which the efforts of advertising in all its branches are spent on this competitive disturbance of trade, they are, on the whole, of slight if any immediate service to the community.

THORSTEIN VEBLEN

The Theory of Business Enterprise


According to the estimate of a prominent advertising firm, above 90 per cent, of the earning capacity of the prominent nostrums is represented by their advertising. And all this advertising is based on the well-proven theory of the public's pitiable ignorance and gullibility in the vitally important matter of health.

SAMUEL HOPKINS ADAMS

"The Fundamental Fakes", Collier's Weekly, Feb. 17, 1906

Tags: Samuel Hopkins Adams


Advertising -- A judicious mixture of flattery and threats.

NORTHROP FRYE

Collected Works of Northrop Frye

Tags: flattery


Advertising is an environmental striptease for a world of abundance.

MARSHALL MCLUHAN

attributed, Subliminal Seduction


What were habitually his final meditations? Of some one sole unique advertisement to cause passers to stop in wonder, a poster novelty, with all extraneous accretions excluded, reduced to its simplest and most efficient terms not exceeding the span of casual vision and congruous with the velocity of modern life.

JAMES JOYCE

Ulysses

Tags: James Joyce


The advertisements in a newspaper are more full of knowledge in respect to what is going on in a state or community than the editorial columns are.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher, newspapers


It is this emphasis on value which for many people excludes ads from admission into the canons of art. The value of art, moreover, especially in literature, is often associated with opposition to our detachment from the dominant values of society. In comparison with literature, ads accept and glorify the dominant ideology while literature often rejects and undermines it. The simple fact that ads answer the brief of their clients accounts for the common perception that while art is a vehicle of honesty, advertising is more likely to be a vehicle of deceit.

GUY W. D. COOK

The Discourse of Advertising

Tags: value, art


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

letter to his daughter, Aug. 24, 1940

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


Advertising to the uninterested is wasted. Unfortunately, in the digital world, even though wasting advertisers' money is a concern, wasting the time of the audience is damaging the medium itself. Lack of relevance led to the attention arms race -- the cause of much of the irritation of today's ads. Advertisers went from static banners to ever more attention-grabbing formats: animations, popups, pop-unders, interstitials etc. Each of these gave a temporary lift, but the underlying irrelevance meant the lift was temporary. The end result is that consumers have been trained to ignore ads.

DEREK HARDING

"Ad Blocking Is A Symptom, Not The Disease", Media Daily News, March 2, 2016


The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.

DAVID OGILVY

Confessions of an Advertising Man


Advertising is not a rifle; it is a shotgun, and any campaign featuring outdoor boards of a cartoon animal inevitably will catch children in its spray.

BOB GARFIELD

attributed, Deadly Persuasion


Brands and advertisers today are begging for a better experience when it comes to engaging consumers. On a constant mission for better relevancy and less intrusiveness, advertisers are increasingly raising questions about the transparency of decisions and the costs involved across the entire ecosystem. This is where hype turns into reality.

ANTTI PASILA

"Taking a fresh look at digital advertising", iMedia, February 28, 2016


Advertising is immodesty turned to profit.

ABRAHAM MILLER

Unmoral Maxims

Tags: Abraham Miller


Advertising is the genie which is transforming America into a place of comfort, luxury and ease for millions. Advertising is the Archimedean lever that is moving the world. If things were done in another and elder age that advertising is doing now, a whole mythology would gather about it, and we should witness the birth of a young God--powerful, restless, indomitable and wise, dominating. He would flash in the sylvan glades of the want advertisements and disport himself in the sunny whiteness of the department stores' wide spaces. But what a god he would be! How beneficent, how omnipresent, how powerful!

WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE

attributed, New York Magazine, Jun. 10, 1968

Tags: William Allen White, America


Making advertising film is also like making a film. After all, advertising is also making small stories in a film. So I never moved out of making films, because I am a filmmaker who is making films in a different medium.

SHIVENDRA SINGH DUNGARPUR

interview, International Business Times, March 5, 2016


Advertising is the through express train of modern publicity. It is by this medium that all good things, all things worthwhile, are accomplished. From sunrise to sunrise, through the daily press, a new product is introduced, a new thought created and the complexion of a nation changed.

SAM DOBBS

attributed, The Advertising Age


Advertising is an addiction: Once you're hooked, it's very difficult to stop. You become accustomed to putting a fixed advertising cost into your budget, and you are afraid to stop because of a baseless fear that, if you do, your flow of new customers will dry up and your previous investments in advertising will have been wasted.

MICHAEL PHILLIPS & SALLI RASBERRY

Marketing Without Advertising

Tags: addiction


Advertising is fundamentally broken -- the Internet screwed it up and the only rational response is for people to use ad-blockers and tune out all the crappy ads.

JOE MARCHESE

"Fox Advertising Executive Joe Marchese Says Digital Media Is Unfairly Screwing Cable", re/code, February 18, 2016


Advertising doesn't cause addictions. But it does create a climate of denial and it contributes mightily to a belief in the quick fix, instant gratification, the dreamworld, and escape from all pain and boredom. All of this is part of what addicts believe and what we hope for when we reach for our particular substance.... Addiction begins with the hope that something "out there" can instantly fill up the emptiness inside. Advertising is all about this false hope.

JEAN KILBOURNE

Can't Buy My Love

Tags: hope