Leo Burnett Quotes

• I planned from about the time I was in my late 20s that I wanted to be retired from working for someone else by the time I was 50.

  Leo Burnett

• I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Genius

• Fun without sell gets nowhere but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Fun

• I regard a great ad as the most beautiful thing in the world.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in World, Beautiful

• I have learned that it is far easier to write a speech about good advertising than it is to write a good ad.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writing

• Whether or not the standard of living made possible by mass production and in turn by mass circulation, is supported by and filled with the work of us hucksters, I guess is something that only history can decide.

  Leo Burnett

  Tags in Standard

• Anyone who thinks that people can be fooled or pushed around has an inaccurate and pretty low estimate of people – and he won’t do very well in advertising.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Advertising, People

• There is no such thing as a permanent advertising success.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Success

  Tags in Advertising

• If you are writing about baloney, don’t try to make it Cornish hen, because that is the worst kind of baloney there is. Just make it darned good baloney.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Worst, Good

• Regardless of the moral issue, dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Advertising, Regardless, Dishonesty

• Too many ads that try not to go over the reader’s head end up beneath his notice.

  Leo Burnett

• Let’s gear our advertising to sell goods, but let’s recognize also that advertising has a broad social responsibility.

  Leo Burnett

  Tags in Social Responsibility, Advertising

• I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Creation

  Tags in Advertising

• A good ad which is not run never produces sales.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Sales, Good

• If you can’t turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn’t be in the ad writing business at all.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Business

  Tags in Customers, Client

• I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Respect

  Tags in Writer, Learning, Ideas

• I have learned that you can’t have good advertising without a good client, that you can’t keep a good client without good advertising, and no client will ever buy better advertising than he understands or has an appetite for.

  Leo Burnett

  Tags in Advertising

• Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Business

  Tags in Ideas

• I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Death

  Tags in Advertising, People

• When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.

  Leo Burnett

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Reach

Leo Burnett (34)

Birth:	21st October, 1891
Death:	7th June, 1971
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Businessman

About

Leo Burnett was an advertising executive and the founder of the Leo Burnett Company, Inc., also known as Leo Burnett Worldwide. He was responsible for creating some of advertising's most well-known characters and campaigns of the 20th century including Tony the Tiger, Charlie the Tuna, the Marlboro Man, the Maytag Repairman, United's "Fly the Friendly Skies," Allstate's "Good Hands," and for garnering relationships with multinational clients such as McDonald's, Hallmark and Coca-Cola. In 1999, Burnett was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

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Today's Anniversary - 24th December

Births

• 1922 - Ava Gardner
• 1974 - Ryan Seacrest
• 1932 - Cynthia Payne
• 1809 - Kit Carson
• 1881 - Margaret Sackville

Deaths

• 1999 - Bill Bowerman
• 1982 - Louis Aragon
• 1961 - Robert Hillyer
• 1881 - Leonard Bacon
• 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray