The Marketing Bureau

Advertising Content. The third in a series of collections of useable quotations to make you look really smart in your next presentation or report.

"Forget words like 'hard sell' and 'soft sell.' That will only confuse you. Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you're saying it like it's never been said before."
William Bernbach, quoted in Bill Bernbach said . . . (1989), DDB Needham Worldwide.

"There is no such thing as 'soft sell' and 'hard sell.' There is only 'smart sell' and 'stupid sell.'"
Charles Browder (1958), president of BBDO, quoted in James B. Simpson, Contemporary
Quotations, 1964, Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, p. 83.

"Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read."
Leo Burnett, quoted in 100 LEO's, Chicago, IL: Leo Burnett Company, p. 79.

"The more facts you tell, the more you sell. An advertisement's chance for success invariably increases as the number of pertinent merchandise facts included in the advertisement increases."
Dr. Charles Edwards, quoted in Leonard Safir and William Safire, Good Advice, 1982, New
York: Times Books, p. 6.

"That is the kind of ad I like. Facts, facts, facts."
Samuel Goldwyn, U.S. film producer, quoted in Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of
Quotations, 1993, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 18.

"The headline is the most important element of an ad. It must offer a promise to the reader of a believable benefit. And it must be phrased in a way to give it memory value."
Morris Hite, quoted in Adman: Morris Hite's Methods for Winning the Ad Game, 1988, Dallas,
TX: E-Heart Press, p. 33.

"To establish a favorable and well-defined brand personality with the consumer the advertiser must be consistent. You can't use a comic approach today and a scientist in a white jacket tomorrow without diffusing and damaging your brand personality."
Morris Hite, quoted in Adman: Morris Hite's Methods for Winning the Ad Game, 1988, Dallas,
TX: E-Heart Press, p. 203.

"The right name is an advertisement in itself."
Claude C. Hopkins, quoted in Randall Rothenberg, Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising
Story (1994), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 12.

"Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement."
Samuel Johnson (1759), English author, quoted in Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of
Quotations, 1993, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 18.

"Advertising in the final analysis should be news. If it is not news it is worthless."
Adolph S. Ochs (1958), quoted in Rhodas Thomas Tripp, The International Thesaurus of
Quotations, 1970, New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, p. 18.

"What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it."
David Ogilvy, quoted in Randall Rothenberg, Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story
(1994), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 63.

"What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form."
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 81.

"The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising."
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 92.

"On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar."
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 92.

"I once used the word OBSOLETE in a headline, only to discover that 43 per cent of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline, I used the word INEFFABLE, only to discover that I didn't know what it meant myself."
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1971, New York: Ballantine Books, p. 99.

"I have a theory that the best ads come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as true and valid and persuasive."
David Ogilvy, quoted in Denis Higgins, The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with
Masters of the Craft (1990), Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books, p. 85.

"Braggin' IS advertisin'"
Jef I. Richards (1997), advertising professor, The University of Texas at Austin.