quotations about advertising
A mistake most civilians make about advertising is that they think it is a writing profession. Wrong! Even for copywriters, it is an idea profession. This is why Ivy honors grads fail and fail again at ad careers. They end up writing overthought and overwrought 27-word headline ads that make sense only to them. Stick to blogging jobs, lit majors.
MARK DUFFY
"Copyranter: The one secret to all great advertising, revealed", Digiday, February 26, 2016
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
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
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
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
Good, careful advertising of the steady, never-let-up sort will positively win. It isn't the fisherman who goes thrashing along and fishes the whole length of a stream in an afternoon that gets the fish. It's the quiet chap who finds a likely looking hole and camps out right by it until he gets his fish and then tries another in the same careful way. More than that, this careful fisherman does not get discouraged because Mr. Fish fails to snap up the hook at the first cast. He tries the bait and he tries the flies, and he changes his lure and his point of view until he hits it right. If the business doesn't respond to the advertising, change the advertising. Don't lay it up to the public that your bait doesn't tempt them.
FRANK FARRINGTON
The Spatula, May, 1909
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
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
NORMAN DOUGLAS
South Wind
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 is prima facie evidence that the man who pays believes that advertising is good. It has brought great results to others, it must be good for him. So he takes it like some secret tonic which others have endorsed. If the business thrives, the tonic gets the credit. Otherwise, the failure is due to fate.
CLAUDE C. HOPKINS
Scientific Advertising
Advertising is utterly unprofitable, and I could prove it to you in one week. End an ad with an offer to pay five dollars to anyone who writes you that he read the ad through. The scarcity of replies will amaze you.
CLAUDE C. HOPKINS
Scientific Advertising
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 like oxygen, you can't survive without it.
DONALD E. HULTS
Unseen Untold is Unsold
That is the kind of ad I like, facts, facts, facts.
SAMUEL GOLDWYN
attributed, Goldwyn: A Biography of the Man Behind the Myth
Advertising -- A judicious mixture of flattery and threats.
NORTHROP FRYE
Collected Works of Northrop Frye
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.
FRANZ KAFKA
attributed, The Daily Book of Positive Quotations
We grew up founding our dreams on the infinite promise of American advertising. I still believe that one can learn to play the piano by mail and that mud will give you a perfect complexion.
ZELDA FITZGERALD
Save Me the Waltz
Advertising is the garment of abundance ... a Masque-like "put on" of all the motifs and actions of our time.
MARSHALL MCLUHAN
Culture Is Our Business
No method of advertising is too expensive if it brings proper results.
S. ROLAND HALL
The Advertising Handbook
Perception of products in advertising is influenced by clever placement in the right context. Companies here use the insights from psychology into people's perceptual capacities in a targeted manner. In the end the goal is to awaken attentiveness in customers. Only those stimuli that generate attentiveness will consciously be perceived by customers and efficiently processed further.
GERHARD RAAB & JASON GODDARD
The Psychology of Marketing: Cross-Cultural Perspectives