A good ad which is not run never produces sales.
Leo Burnett

A good basic selling idea, involvement and relevancy, of course, are as important as ever, but in the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain't got nothin'.
Leo Burnett

Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret... to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.
Leo Burnett

Advertising says to people, 'Here's what we've got. Here's what it will do for you. Here's how to get it.'
Leo Burnett

Anyone who thinks that people can be fooled or pushed around has an inaccurate and pretty low estimate of people - and he won't do very well in advertising.
Leo Burnett

Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.
Leo Burnett

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.
Leo Burnett

Fun without sell gets nowhere but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious.
Leo Burnett

Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
Leo Burnett

I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.
Leo Burnett


I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.
Leo Burnett

I have learned that it is far easier to write a speech about good advertising than it is to write a good ad.
Leo Burnett

I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.
Leo Burnett

I have learned that you can't have good advertising without a good client, that you can't keep a good client without good advertising, and no client will ever buy better advertising than he understands or has an appetite for.
Leo Burnett

I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think.
Leo Burnett

I regard a great ad as the most beautiful thing in the world.
Leo Burnett

If you can't turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn't be in the ad writing business at all.
Leo Burnett

If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.
Leo Burnett

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
Leo Burnett

Plan the sale when you plan the ad.
Leo Burnett