If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.

Viewers have a way of remembering the celebrity while forgetting the product. I did not know this when I paid Eleanor Roosevelt $35,000 to make a commercial for margarine. She reported that her mail was equally divided. "One half was sad because I had damaged my reputation. The other half was happy because I had damaged my reputation." Not one of my proudest memories.

If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data - it doesn't mean the ad is written. Then you've got to close the door and write something - that is the moment of truth which we all try to postpone as long as possible.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine.

While you are responsible to your clients for sales results, you are responsible to consumers for the kind of advertising you bring into their homes.

What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

Talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.