Aurora Magazine

Promoting excellence in advertising

Can education and advertising have anything in common?

Published in Jan-Feb 2014

Can advertising and education have anything in common?

On the surface, it appears that the conditioning of the human soul through education and the conditioning of the market through advertising are poles apart. But, surprisingly, when you compare the best of both, you begin to appreciate some revelatory parallels.

And what better way is there to showcase this than by substituting ‘advertising’ for ‘education’ in some of the better quotations out there on the subject so that their meanings apply to both? Here they have been curated and follow in abundance.

On agency life

“Try not to have a good time... this is supposed to be (advertising).” – Charles M. Schulz

“When you study great (advertising)... you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” – William Glasser

“Some men never recover from (advertisers).” – Oliver St. John Gogarty

On agency people

“Thank goodness I was never sent into (advertising); it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” – Beatrix Potter

“The principle goal of (advertising) should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.” – Jean Piaget

“Like many (advertising) people, I didn’t have much in the way of actual skills.” – J. Maarten Troost

On audience

“(Advertising to) the mind without (advertising to) the heart is no (advertising) at all.” – Aristotle

“(Advertising) is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

“To (advertise to) a person in the mind, but not in morals, is to (advertise) a menace to society.” – Theodore Roosevelt

On branding

“(Advertising) is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity and a provision in old age.” – Aristotle

“The (advertising) process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.” – Audre Lorde

“(Advertising) can change our perceptions, which have the effect of changing everything.” – Donna Quesada

“To know how to suggest is the art of (advertising).” – Henri-Frédéric Amiel

“Behind (advertising) of influence you will find a masterful storyteller.” – Mollie Marti

On budgets

“If you think (advertising) is expensive, try ignorance.” – Derek Bok

“To reap a return in 10 years, plant trees.

To reap a return in 100, (advertise to) the people.” – Ho Chí Minh

“It doesn`t hurt to get more (advertising).” – Donald Trump

On consumerism

“(Advertising) is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” – Edward Everett

“(Advertising) is essential to change, for (advertising) creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” – Henry Steele Commager

“(Advertising) is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – W.B. Yeats

“(Advertising) is a system of imposed ignorance.” – Noam Chomsky

On deadlines

“Marriage can wait, (advertising) cannot.” – Khaled Hosseini

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. (Advertise) as if you were to live forever.” – Gandhi

“(Advertising) is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

On objectives

“The great aim of (advertising) is not knowledge but action.” – Herbert Spencer

“(Advertising’s) purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes

“When you (advertise) better, you do better.” – Maya Angelou

“The task of the modern (advertiser) is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” – C.S. Lewis

“I am not (an advertiser), but an awakener.” – Robert Frost

There might be a lesson in this. Perhaps when we approach advertising as a means of educating (our peers, our clients, our tribe) about its untapped potential, then it may just run its course of excellence, degree by degree.

Faraz Maqsood Hamidi is CE and CD, The D’Hamidi Partnership.