George Lois Quotes

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.

A lot of advertising has gotten worse. I think it's kind of lost its nerve, to be honest with you. I feel like the advertising of the '60s, they were nervier. You know why? Because there was less at stake.

Forget words like 'hard sell' and 'soft sell.' That will only confuse you. Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you're saying it like it's never been said before.

In the Mac vs. PC ads, Apple bills itself as the antidote to Microsoft. To love Apple wasn't to sell out. It was to buy in. Most people use PCs, but Apple has the mindshare.

In advertising not to be different is virtually suicidal.

It's always the organizations that are resource constrained that come up with the good ideas to win.

To me, unconventional thinking is approaching a problem and asking, 'Why not? Why can't something be done?' If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

To come to grips with creativity, I must ask creative, adventurous questions - the kind which, in all likelihood, cannot be answered.

Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.

When you think of a brand, you should immediately understand it from the advertising attitude, from the words and visuals.

Advertising must respect the intelligence of its audience and if it does not prompt them to think, it will be instantly dismissed.

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

Hard work isn't enough. And more work is never the real answer. The sort of grit you need to scale a business is less reliant on brute force. It's actually one part determination, one part ingenuity, and one part laziness.

When we launched a new company, I reviewed the ads and marketing materials and asked those presenting the campaign to read everything aloud to test the phrasing and concept. If I could grasp it quickly, then it passed with muster. We would get our message across only if it was understandable at first glance.

Leaders who can push themselves beyond their comfort zones and understand how to harness the power of reverse innovation have the chance to become the next great visionaries.

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

The way creative people live is different from people who don't do anything creative.

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

One of our secret-sauce powers is that our people don't just write checks and place the ads, but our employees go the extra mile to get things done.

Growth hacking is a mindset, and those who have it will reap incredible gains.

I set up Droga5 because I really believe in the power of advertising. But I believe in the power of advertising that's in synch with what consumers want.

Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.

Conflict is resolved not through compromise, but through invention.

When everyone zigs, zag. Life is all about trying to get somewhere first.