Quotes About Communication

The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.

Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

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.

The relationship between a manufacturer and his advertising agency is almost as intimate as the relationship between a patient and his doctor. Make sure that you can life happily with your prospective client before you accept his account.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine.

The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.

Any fool can write a bad advertisement, but it takes a genius to keep his hands off a good one.

Whenever you can, make the product itself the hero of your advertising. If you think the product too dull, I have news for you: there are no dull products, only dull writers.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

When copywriters argue with me about some esoteric word they want to use, I say to them, 'Get on a bus. Go to Iowa. Stay on a farm for a week and talk to the farmer. Come back to New York by train and talk to your fellow passengers in the day-coach. If you still want to use the word, go ahead.

The trouble with market research is that people don't think what they feel, they don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.

Truth Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.

Most good copywriters', says William Maynard of the Bates agency, 'fall into two categories. Poets. And killers.

Aldous Huxley, who was once a copywriter, said, 'It is easier to write ten passably effective sonnets than one effective advertisement.' You cannot bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it.

If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.

When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing each of them a letter on behalf of your client. One human being to another, second person singular.

advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not.

Never summon people to your office; it frightens them. Instead, go to see them in their offices, unannounced. A boss who never wanders about his agency becomes an invisible hermit. 3

Remember the French saying: 'He who is absent is always wrong.

Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money.

Whatever you do, for goodness sake, don't change the name of your corporation to initials.

Tell your prospective client what your weak points are, before he notices them. This will make you more credible when you boast about your strong points. Don

People don't think what they feel, don't say what they think and don't do what they say.