Quotes

History is full of Renegades, and not a few of them have made pithy observances about the madness of consumerism and the manipulation of buyers by industry and advertising. Here are a few... there are more to come.

Advertising

Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.

- Will Rogers

If advertisers spent the same amount of money on improving their products as they do on advertising then they wouldn't have to advertise them.

- Will Rogers

Advertising is legalized lying.

- H.G. Wells

Advertising is institutionalized lying.

- Abbie Hoffman

I like Hoffman's formulation better. Lying isn't necessarily illegal, but lying by an entire institution is a crime.

I can't think of anything advertised on television that's good for people.

- Abbie Hoffman

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

- Stephen Butler Leacock

Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.

- George Santayana

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.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.

- Sinclair Lewis

Fashion

Fashions are the only induced epidemics, proving that epidemics can be induced by tradesmen.

- George Bernard Shaw

Need Fulfillment

I am always amazed to see just how many things there are that I don't need.

- Socrates

Before I buy anything, I ask, "Do I need this damned thing?"

- Charles McCabe

Above is the lede from a brilliant essay by McCabe which discussed how he maintained his frugal, minimalist lifestyle. The essay's concluding line: “Right now, I can think of only one thing I need: a helicopter.”

Even the ghettoes advertise gourmet hamburgers.

- Charles McCabe

“He who dies with the most toys, wins.”

- 1980s slogan

...wins what?

“He who dies with the most toys is still dead.”

- 1980s counterslogan

Or, you never see a moving van enter a cemetery.

Observations

Carlin's Law: If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it.

- George Carlin

When people are free to do anything they please, they usually imitate each other.

- Eric Hoffer

The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.

- Marcel Proust

It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.

- Anatole France

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.

- Lily Tomlin

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so.

- Will Rogers