Advertisement Negative Quotes

• The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.

  David Ogilvy

  Marketing, Advertising, Economy

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  76 Copy quote

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• Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

  Stephen Leacock

  Money, Fear, Animal Intelligence

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.29, University of Toronto Press

  29 Copy quote

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• History will see advertising as one of the real evil things of our time. It is stimulating people constantly to want things, want this, want that.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Real, People, Evil

  29 Copy quote

• Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.

  George Santayana

  Religion, Advertising, Argument

  George Santayana (1937). “The Works of George Santayana”

  18 Copy quote

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• Advertising - a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.

  Northrop Frye

  Business, Mixtures, Advertising

  Northrop Frye (1976). “The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance”, p.167, Harvard University Press

  21 Copy quote

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• The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men - the man he is and the man he wants to be.

  William Feather

  Wise, Witty, Philosophy

  William Feather (1949). “The Business of Life”

  11 Copy quote

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• What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

  David Ogilvy

  Business, Insightful, Marketing

  18 Copy quote

• An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15 percent commission.

  Fred Allen

  Business, Agency, Confusion

  25 Copy quote

• You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.

  Norman Douglas

  Business, Advertising, Nigeria Independence

  SouthWind ch. 7 (1917)

  15 Copy quote

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• Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

  Mark Twain

  Wise, Witty, Kindness

  1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, ch.22.

  21 Copy quote

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• The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.

  Bill Cosby

  Funny, Humor, Law

  29 Copy quote

• Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Funny, Money, Humor

  "Gideon Planish". Book by Sinclair Lewis, 1943.

  21 Copy quote

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• Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.

  William Bernbach

  Running, Business, Numbers

  24 Copy quote

• Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.

  Terry Pratchett

  Sex, Fun, Writing

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  Business, Believe, People

  Leo Burnett (1961). “Communications of an Advertising Man: Selections from the Speeches, Articles, Memoranda, and Miscellaneous Writings of Leo Burnett”

  21 Copy quote

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• 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

  Advertising, Improving, Products

  Will Rogers, Bryan B. Sterling (1995). “Will Rogers Speaks: Over 1,000 Timeless Quotations for Public Speakers (writers, Politicians, Comedians, Browsers ...)”, M Evans & Company

  14 Copy quote

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• Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

  David Ogilvy

  Writing, Men, Agency

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  32 Copy quote

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• The trouble with us in America isn't that the poetry of life has turned to prose, but that it has turned to Advertising copy.

  Louis Kronenberger

  Funny, Life, America

  "Company Manners: A Cultural Inquiry into American Life". Book by Louis Kronenberger. Chapter: "The Spirit of the Age", p. 18, 1954.

  12 Copy quote

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• Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Art, Business, Journey

  19 Copy quote

• Be comfortable with who you are', reads the headline on the Hush Puppies poster. Are they mad? If people were comfortable with who they were, they'd never buy any products except the ones they needed, and then where would the advertising industry be?

  Marc Edwards

  Humorous, People, Mad

  7 Copy quote

• Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

  Herb Pomeroy

  Music, Fun, Clothes

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Zero, Humanity, Admitting

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “Collected Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works”, p.161, e-artnow

  9 Copy quote

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• Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

  David Ogilvy

  Business, Testing Yourself, Advertising

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  16 Copy quote

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• Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.

  David Ogilvy

  Advertising, Irritating, Brands

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  17 Copy quote

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• I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.

  Leo Burnett

  Business, Boss, Trying

  Leo Burnett (1961). “Communications of an Advertising Man: Selections from the Speeches, Articles, Memoranda, and Miscellaneous Writings of Leo Burnett”

  13 Copy quote

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