quotations about advertising
Isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all the advertising men who create it?
DAVID RIESMAN
The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character
The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them.
THEODOR W. ADORNO
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
MARK TWAIN
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument, its function is to make the worse appear the better article. A confused competition of all propagandas -- those insults to human nature -- is carried on by the most expert psychological methods -- for instance, by always repeating a lie.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Atoms of Thought: An Anthology of Thoughts
Defenders of advertising may claim that ... advertising is necessary for economic growth, which benefits us all. The truth of this claim, however, is open to debate. Critics maintain that advertising is a waste of resources and serves only to raise the price of advertised goods ... they may also contend that advertising in general reinforces mindless consumerism.
WILLIAM H. SHAW
Business Ethics
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
On the Margin: Notes and Essays
No method of advertising is too expensive if it brings proper results.
S. ROLAND HALL
The Advertising Handbook
Why do Jell-O and Coke pay Bill Cosby to sell their products? Why do politicians wrap themselves in the flag? Why is Miller brewed the American way? Why do we love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet? Why? Because these people and symbols are already powerful anchors in the culture, and the advertisers are simply transferring the feeling we have for these people or symbols to their products. They use them as ways to make us receptive to whatever it is they're selling.
ANTHONY ROBBINS
Unlimited Power: A Black Choice
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
NORMAN DOUGLAS
South Wind
Advertising is a valuable factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
SINCLAIR LEWIS
attributed, Selling the Dream
Good advertising is advertising that gets the money.
JULIUS SCHNEIDER
attributed, The Advertising Age
That is the kind of ad I like, facts, facts, facts.
SAMUEL GOLDWYN
attributed, Goldwyn: A Biography of the Man Behind the Myth
We will never know if an advertisement or opinion poll has had a real influence on individual or collective wills, but we will never know either what would have happened if there had been no opinion poll or advertisement.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
The Perfect Crime
Advertising is an expected part of everyday life, but it is also alien to it: the ever-expected but uninvited guest; on magazine pages, during TV programmes, and round each city corner.
IAIN MACRURY
Advertising
Too little advertising is like sowing too little seed. A farmer in planting corn puts a number of grains into each hill and is satisfied if one good healthy stalk comes from each planting. It's the constant advertiser that is bound to attract attention. It's the succession of bright, catchy advertisements that refuse to be ignored. That time must be allowed for the fruit to grow, ripen and be gathered is as true as that wheat cannot be reaped the day after it is sown.
BYRON W. ORR
The Clothier and Furnisher, Jan. 1890
Advertising is the fuel of enterprise.
GEORGE FRENCH
The Independent, Jan. 23, 1913
Great advertising is almost always risk-taking, if not occasionally irreverent.
PATRICK FARREY
attributed, "An Open Letter to the AAF President on the Ridiculousness of All-Male, All-White Juries", AdWeek, March 3, 2016
The future of advertising and marketing services belongs as much to Maths Men (and women) as it does to Mad Men.
MARTIN SORRELL
attributed, "Will tech giants crush advertising agencies?", Economic Times, February 24, 2016
The ubiquity of advertising is, of course, just another effect of our uninhibited efforts to use all the media to get all sorts of information to everybody everywhere. Since the places to be filled are everywhere, the amount of advertising is not determined by the needs of advertising, but by the opportunities for advertising, which become unlimited.
DANIEL BOORSTIN
attributed, Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media
Advertising is a highly visible form of public culture, as conspicuous in its absence--as when advertising is removed from a metro station or a sporting event venue temporarily--as it is in its apparent ever-presence. Without advertising, space is refigured and opens up a glimpse of what feels like a quite different society.
IAIN MACRURY
Advertising