Mad Men Pearls of Wisdom

Ed McCabe 

“Weak advertising tells people what you want them to know. Strong advertising gets people to conclude what you want them to know. I have a theory that comes from the smoking era. If you walk up to someone on the street and say, ‘Excuse me, sir,’ they are gone. But if you come right out and say, ‘Got a match?’ you get your match.”

Jerry Della Femina

"There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster."

Keith Reinhardt

"The first rule of creativity is, “Be prepared to look foolish.” If you are bothered by the snickers of those who take comfort in the “tried and true,” it’s unlikely you’ll be very creative."

Donny Deutsch

“If you can’t embrace failure, or the possibility of failure, or the tremendous fear of failure, you can’t be wildly successful.” 

And the master . . .David Ogilvy

“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. “