Quotes

You see, advertising is a substitute for a salesperson, so it should be likable. Who would buy from a salesperson who is rude, arrogant or insulting? People like to do business with people they like, therefore they respond to advertising created by people who like people.

(on teaching) Not to sound pompous. I don't think I am pompous, but I learn as much as I teach. I help students by telling them what the real world is like. Not like a professor, telling them what the world ought to be like

The stereotyping of people makes it difficult for us to talk to each other. I believe that talking is a good thing and that listening is even more useful. I'm not suggesting, as sour-heads do, that our society's problems will all miraculously disappear if only we learn to communicate. But I am suggesting that, without honest talking and careful listening, we cannot define the problems. And that's what I want to emphasize today: that our society has problems; that we need to communicate to define them; that we cannot communicate if we view people as stereotypes; and that we cannot talk meaningfully to anybody about anything unless first we learn to listen. (Toronto, Canada: The Empire Club of Canada, 1969)

Businessmen should speak out in public about how they plan to make our economic system work more equitably. For everyone. I am a businessman. I am a capitalist, I guess. But that doesn't stop me from seeing flaws in our private enterprise system. I see flaws in advertising too. I speak out against them because, failing to expose them, will only compound them. And, frankly, it's for my own self-preservation too.

People in power have always been frightened of real communication because it breaks down social and economic barriers.