In a way, advertising, for all its shallowness, its love of design, its modishness and its self-justification, is curiously innocent. The idea of the hidden persuader or the manipulator is largely absurd.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Persuasion has become a kind of force. The more the advertiser knows about what consumers want, and the more desires the product and packaging seek to fulfill, the more coercive the force.
The interesting thing about advertising is that the things that annoy us sometimes about it are really human. It's us looking at ourselves - and like all human endeavors it's imperfect.
It's almost as if creativity is dead. The visual power of advertising was everywhere - now it's basically gone.
Advertising must respect the intelligence of its audience and if it does not prompt them to think, it will be instantly dismissed.
Advertisements ordinarily work their wonders, to the extent that they work at all, on an inattentive public.
Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.
Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.
The susceptibility of the average modern to pictorial suggestion enables advertising to exploit his lessened power of judgment.
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.
Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.