The Best (And Worst) Things Ever Said About Advertising (Free Article)
This post is dedicated to Mad Man George Lois—may his brilliant, angry soul Rest In A Facsimile Of Peace.
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1. LOIS
2. BERNBACH
Two from the (God)Father of Creativity. The full left quote:
“There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately, they talk the best game. They know all the rules … but there’s one little rub. They forget that advertising is persuasion, and persuasion is not a science, but an art. Advertising is the art of persuasion”.—BB
3. LOIS
I interviewed Lois about seven years ago. He liked me (or at least pretended to).
I can’t find a fancy layout of this one, but he echoes Bernbach, with extra nastiness:
“Because advertising and marketing is an art, the solution to each new problem or challenge should begin with a blank canvas and an open mind, not with the nervous borrowings of other people’s mediocrities. That’s precisely what ‘trends’ are – a search for something ‘safe’ – and why a reliance on them leads to oblivion.”—George Lois
4. LUKE SULLIVAN
5. ALDOUS HUXLEY
Fellow Dystopian pessimist Huxley was fascinated/disgusted with advertising. Props to him for tripping on LSD as he died from advanced laryngeal cancer.
6. PHIL DUSENBERRY
7. FRANZ KAFKA
Well, ads are everywhere, like cockroaches (snicker), and can sometimes by quite Kafkaesque.
8. MARK TWAIN
Twain also once said (more or less):
“Tell the proofreader to retain his suggestions in the mush of his brain”.
9. GEORGE ORWELL
So dramatic, so Orwellian.
10. THOMAS JEFFERSON
10. ROBERT MONTGOMERY (Street Artist, etc.)
11. GEORGE LOIS
Let’s end with Lois, perhaps going a bit too far. But you get the point, which is the point.
Ah, cry-baby Millennials think everything should be free. "WAH, I don't wanna pay for college, WAH, I don't want to pay rent, WAH, everything on the Internet should be free for ME because I'm a "digital native", WAAAAAHHHHHHH..." There there, precious, here's your free bagel and snacks, and a tissue...*sniffles*
Great quotes. Thanks for posting these.