Howard Luck Gossage

“The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad.”

“The buying of time or space is not the taking out of a hunting license on someone else’s private preserve but is the renting of a stage on which we may perform.”

“Our first duty is not to the old sales curve, it is to the audience.”

“Advertising should be a conversation.”

“People don't buy from clowns.”

“We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it.”

“To explain responsibility to advertising men is like trying to convince an eight-year-old that sexual intercourse is more fun than a chocolate ice cream cone.”

“I don't know who discovered water, but I'm certain it wasn't a fish.”

“An ad should be a happening, not a nagging.”

“The only fit work for a grown man is to be a teacher.”

“Advertising is a multi-billion dollar sledgehammer driving a 49 cent thumbtack.”

“You can't just be against something; you have to be for something.”

“To be a mass medium, you have to be mediocre.”