The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pre-test your product with consumers, and pre-test your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace. David Ogilvy
Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image. David Ogilvy
The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife. Never write an advertisement you would not want your own family to read. You would not tell lies to your wife. Don’t tell them to mine. David Ogilvy
Unless your advertising is based on a BIG IDEA, it will pass like a ship in the night. David Ogilvy
There is a disease called entertainment that is infecting our business. David Ogilvy
Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving. David Ogilvy
Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century. Marshall McLuhan
Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. George Orwell
Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising. John Lahr
There is no more craven consumer than the advertising man. Peter York
Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials. Marshall McLuhan
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
I can not think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil. Arnold Toynbee
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
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them. David Ogilvy
I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second. Stephen Wright
Advertising men and politicians are dangerous if they are separated. Together they are diabolical. Phillip Adams
Advertising has annihilated the power of the most powerful adjectives. Paul Valery
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better. George Santayana
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. Norman Douglas
Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it. Stephen Leacock
Time spent in the advertising business seems to create a permanent deformity like the Chinese habit of foot-binding. Dean Acheson
If you can afford to advertise, you don’t need to. Norman Augustine
It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country. Raymond Chandler
The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague. Bill Cosby
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things. Franz Kafka
Advertising has done more to cause the social unrest of the 20th century than any other single factor. Clare Boothe Luce