[Advertising is] the first, second, and third elements of “success.”
- P.T. Barnum. In Michael Zuckerman, “And in the Center Ring…,” Pennsylvania Gazette, May 1993
The successful advertiser is the master of a new art: art of making things true by saying they are so. He is devotee of the technique of the self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Daniel J. Boorstin. The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 5.4, 1961
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
- Norman Douglas. South Wind, 7, 1917
To keep people buying, you need first to make them dissatisfied with what they have…. Advertising is nothing more than a technique to keep people in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction with what they possess and in a permanent state of itchy acquisitiveness.
- Felix Greene. ” The Face of Capitalism,” The Enemy: What Every American Should Know About Imperialism, 1970
Playboy linked sex with upward mobility. If you can make people feel it’s OK to enjoy themselves, you’ve got a winning product-whatever it is.
- Hugh Hefner. In Merla Zellerbach “Revealing Secrets of Their Success,” San Francisco Chronicle, 11 July 1979
The best ad is a good product.
- Alan H. Meyer
When I write an ad, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it “creative.” I want you to find it so persuasive that you buy the product-or buy it more often.
- David Ogilvy. In “David Ogilvy’s Hard Advice,” New York Times, 30 October 1991
We are selling perception as much as reality. We want to fill a need in the consumer’s mind, and it really doesn’t matter if the need is real or imagined.
- Kevin O’Malley. Faberware general manager. On his company’s introduction of Microbrew, a microwave coffee maker. In Douglas C. McGill, “Hunting for a Better Cup of Coffee,” New York Times, 27 May 1989
Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising, and they wouldn’t have to advertise it.
- Will Rogers
