Jane Mayer Quotes

Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted.

If power lies more and more in the hands of corporations rather than governments, the most effective way to be political is not to cast one's vote at the ballot box, but to do so at the supermarket or at a shareholders' meeting. When provoked, corporations respond.

If advertising had a little more respect for the public, the public would have a lot more respect for advertising.

I think the industry finally gets it. They've lost the connection with the American public, and they've got to rebuild the trust with the American public.

Do I take criticism of Starbucks personally? Of course I do.

We don't tell a 17-year-old kid that Nike sucks, because the fact of the matter is, Nike doesn't suck. They're actually very good at what they do.

Over time, it's becoming more and more understood by people that we're acting in their interests. And that's a very, very powerful thing for our brand.

I think so much of neoliberalism and capitalism has caused people to live in a state of greed, fear and consumption that is covering up so much of what we really want.

Everything has become very corporate and very careful. Before we had a real democracy going and there were a lot of freedoms and now there's this terrorism thing that everybody's focused on, which is really a boondoggle in my opinion. It's just an excuse to clamp down on people's free speech. And corporations intimidate people and everybody's gotten intimidated and that's really what it is, and they just keep going along. It's almost like - a little bit like that Charlie Chaplin movie, Modern Times, or 1984, Orwell

Connect with all the passions people have - for themselves, their families, their communities and wider world - and they will follow you to the ends of the earth, buy your products and services with pride, and may even be willing to work for you for next to nothing.

Every time you buy something consider it a vote of confidence in the company that produced it.

We've always had anti-Americans. We've always had left-wing protesters and so forth, but they were always off to the left kooks. They were always oddball nutcases. Now they're not. They come across as ordinary, everyday mainstream people. It just disgusts me. It's so unfortunate, so unnecessary.

When people talk about successful retailers and those that are not so successful, the customer determines at the end of the day who is successful and for what reason.

Well, it's taken time to get this going, but he was right. If you give people a chance to associate themselves with a cause they care about, while buying a great product, they will. That was how the RED Campaign was born, here in Davos.

I meet so many people who are intimidated by arithmetic.

What would things been like [in Russia] if during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there, paling with terror at every bang on the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people?

It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.

That's the way to go. People say: 'Oh, he doesn't want to come back, he's scared,' and it's to play with your brain, to play with your mind. I'm not scared of nobody. I'm not scared of no human being. I'm scared to fight, every time I fight I'm scared, but I'll bite into my mouthpiece and I'll walk the walk.

Wal-Mart has done more for poor people then any ten liberals, at least nine of whom are almost guaranteed to hate Wal-Mart.

The single biggest stimulus to the economy are the unemployment benefits we're paying. These people go out and they spend the money. They go out and they have to get by to everything from paying their mortgage or buying food or just getting by. It has a significant impact on economic growth and the continuation of economic growth.

To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!

If you want to scare people, you talk about evil.

The word had spread and people were piling around us. But then very suddenly, Sonny Liston froze me with that look of his. He said real quiet, 'Let's go on over here.' And he led the way to a table and the people hung back. I ain't going to lie. This was the only time since I have known Sonny Liston that he really scared me.

There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people.

Many companies are disappointing the citizens of this world by manipulating labor rates, putting horse meat instead of beef out there, or thinking it's totally acceptable to make a T-shirt from a collapsing factory. Increasingly, people don't want to work for these companies, and consumers don't want to buy from them.