Jerry Della Femina

“I'm a driver, and I love it.”

“Probably the best advertising jobs of all are done by governments to convince people to go to war.”

“I came into the advertising business in 1952, at the age of sixteen, as a delivery boy for a stuffy, old-line advertising agency named Ruthruff and Ryan, which could have served as the setting for the 'Mad Men' television series without moving a desk.”

“I gotta be involved. I still write ads; I still run around and rally the creative people.”

“'Business Week' is guilty of very shoddy reporting.”

“Most account guys live with fear in their hearts.”

“If the FBI is now in charge of bad taste, we're all doomed.”

“Advertising should always be in good taste without a question.”

“In my world - advertising - the Super Bowl is judgment day. If politicians have Election Day and Hollywood has the Oscars, advertising has the Super Bowl.”

“Once you're not No. 1, it doesn't matter where you are.”

“Every automobile ad looks alike.”

“There's something that goes on in a new-business meeting that's wonderful to watch. It's like showtime. There are people who are nervous, and there are people who are jittery, and there's so much drama and so much at stake.”

“A computer is a wonderful thing, but it's cold, and what comes out of it is sort of cold.”

“Once people feel comfortable with something, they say, 'Let's try it.'”

“In the '50s and '60s, a family's first child went into the priesthood, the second went into the military, and the third child was an idiot and wound up in advertising.”

“I've seen very few Hispanics and blacks who have been able to work their way into the advertising end of business.”

“I was the first advertising person who people could identify with.”

“There's nothing worse than winning but being told by people that you're losing.”

“I've never met a client who wants to be the worst.”

“Everybody makes a lot of money when the French come to town.”