Morris Hite - Commercial Quotes

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To Mrs. Mufoosky, the commercials may seem as long as a whore's dream. But to the new advertiser who has spent 100 Gs for his first network commercial - he gets a new understanding of a split second. It's the fastest half minute of his lifetime.

Morris Hite
Ethics in advertising? Advertising is about as ethical as the American public. About as ethical as you and your neighbors. About as selfish as you and your acquaintances. It has about the same moral standards as the upper socioeconomic strata of society because it is created, approved and paid for by the upper echelons of modern U.S. society. I'll modify that to say that it is a little more ethical, a little more moral, than the upper economic strata of society. Why? Because advertising lives in a fish bowl. It is the most visible of all commercial practices. It has 200 million critics. And no business, no communications medium, no art form (or whatever you want to call advertising), no other enterprise has so many watchdogs.

Morris Hite
Techniques of art, layout, typography, radio and television productions and fine writing are important. Nevertheless, they are secondary to the basic selling proposition around which the ad or commercial is built. It is not the purpose of the ad or commercial to make the reader or listener say 'My, what a clever ad.' It is the purpose of advertising to make the reader or listener say, 'I believe I'll buy one when I'm shopping tomorrow,' or 'I wonder if Joe could get one for me wholesale? The place to start in advertising is the basic selling appeal. An appeal that fulfills some existing need in the prospect's mind, an appeal that can be readily understood and believed.

Morris Hite