Michael Schudson

“It is very likely that many firms spend more on advertising than, for their own best interests, they should.”

“Advertising generally works to reinforce consumer trends rather than to initiate them.”

“Buy me and you will overcome the anxieties I have just reminded you of.”

“Chances are that neither the client nor the agency will ever know very much about what role the ad has played in sales or profits of the client, either short-term or long-term.”

“Sales may lead to advertising as much as advertising leads to sales.”

“If there are signs that Americans bow to the gods of advertising, there are equally indications that people find the gods ridiculous. It is part of the popular culture that advertisements are silly.”

“The power of ads rests more in the repetition of obvious exhortations than in the subtle transmission of values.”

“Advertisements ordinarily work their wonders, to the extent that they work at all, on an inattentive public.”

“If advertising is not an official or state art, it is nonetheless clearly art.”

“The effectiveness of advertising depends on the amount and kind of product information available to consumers... advertising will be more successful the more impoverished the consumer's information environment.”

“American advertisers rely on 'essentially illogical' approaches to determine their advertising budgets.”

“Most criticism of advertising is written in ignorance of what actually happens inside these agencies.”