CONSUMERS
"The deeper problems connected with advertising come less from the unscrupulousness of our 'deceivers' than from our pleasure in being deceived, less from the desire to seduce than from the desire to be seduced."
Daniel J. Boorstin, U.S. historian, quoted in Rhodas Thomas Tripp, The International Thesaurus of Quotations, 1970, New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, p. 18.
"If you can't turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn't be in the ad writing business at all."
Leo Burnett, quoted in 100 LEO's, Chicago, IL: Leo Burnett Company, p. 19.
"Being myself animated by feelings of affection toward my fellowmen, I am saddened by the modern system of advertising. Whatever evidence it offers of enterprise, ingenuity, impudence, and resource in certain individuals, it proves to my mind the wide prevalence of that form of mental degradation which is called gullibility."
Joseph Conrad
"A man who is hungry need never be told of his need for food. If he is inspired by his appetite, he is immune to the influence of Messrs. Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. The latter are effective only with those who are so far removed from physical want that they do not already know what they want."
John Kenneth Galbraith (1958), economics professor, quoted in James B. Simpson, Contemporary Quotations, 1964, Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, p. 84.
"Advertising is found in societies which have passed the point of satisfying the basic animal needs."
Marion Harper, Jr. (1960), president of McCann-Erickson, quoted in James B. Simpson, Contemporary Quotations, 1964, Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, p. 84.
"The modern Little Red Riding Hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objection to being eaten by the wolf."
Marshall McLuhan, Canadian communications theorist, quoted in Rhodas Thomas Tripp, The International Thesaurus of Quotations, 1970, New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, p. 18.
"The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife."
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine, p. 84.
"The novice at advertising frequently gives the public credit for too much intelligence."
Printers' Ink, September 2 (1903), quoted in Eric Clark, The Want Makers: Inside the World of Advertising, 1988, New York: Penguin Books, p. 163.
"[D]ifferent groups are differentially vulnerable to advertising; and their vulnerability varies not so much with the character or quantity of advertisements as with the informational resources they can claim by age, education, station in life, and government guarantees of consumer protection."
Michael Schudson, Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion: Its Dubious Impact on American Society, 1984, New York: Basic Books, p. xvi.