Bruce Fairchild Barton
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Bruce Fairchild Barton (5 August 1886 – 5 July 1967) American writer, advertising executive, and politician.
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- A man may be down, but he is never out.
- A slogan Barton wrote for the Salvation Army
- There are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of its healing waters... The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure. The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps. The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. The other sea gives nothing. It is named The Dead. There are two kinds of people in the world. There are two seas in Palestine.
- "There are Two Seas", McCall's magazine (1928); reprinted in the Reader's Digest (1946)
- Give advertising time. That is the thing that it needs most. The advertising agency is the most precious infant among the professions. Is it fair to expect perfection in a profession that counts only a single generation to its credit? We are learning. I see no reason why advertising agencies, too, should not outlive their founders and the successors of their founders, growing wiser with each generation and gathering a priceless possession of recorded experience.
- BBDO Newsletter (1966)
- I had never thought of advertising as a life work, though I had on the side, written some very successful copy.
- As quoted in The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators (1984) by Steven Fox
- The American conception of advertising is to arouse desires and stimulate wants, to make people dissatisfied with the old and out-of-date and by constant iteration to send them out to work harder to get the latest model—whether that model be an icebox or a rug or a new home.
- As quoted in Fables of Abundance: a cultural history of advertising in America (1994) by Jackson Lears
[edit] The Man Nobody Knows (1924)
- Much brass has been sounded and many cymbals tinkled in the name of advertising; but the advertisements which persuade people to act are written by men who have an abiding respect for the intelligence of their readers, and a deep sincerity regarding the merits of the goods they have to sell.
- An adman: persuading, recruiting followers, finding the right words to arouse interest and create desires, in short exemplifying all the principles of modern salesmanship.
- On Jesus
- Generalities would have been soon forgotten. But the story that had its roots in everyday human existence and need, lives and will live forever. It condensed the philosophy of Christianity into half a dozen unforgettable paragraphs. The parable of the Good Samaritan is the greatest advertisement of all times.
- It is said that great leaders are born, not made. The saying is true to this degree, that no man can persuade people to do what he wants them to do, unless he genuinely likes people, and believes that what he wants them to do is to their own advantage.
- Learn their lesson, that if you would teach people you first must capture their interest with news; that your service rather than your sermons must be your claim upon their attention; that what you say must be simple, and brief, and above all sincere—the unmistakable voice of true regard and affection.
- On the teachings of Jesus
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- Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change—this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.
- As a profession advertising is young; as a force it is as old as the world. The first four words ever uttered, "Let there be light," constitute its charter. All nature is vibrant with its impulse.
- Before you give up hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made on Lincoln.
- Christ would be a national advertiser today, I am sure, as He was a great advertiser in His own day. He thought of His life as business.
- Conceit is God's gift to little men.
- If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
- Variant: If you can give your child only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
- If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.
- In good times, people want to advertise; in bad times, they have to.
- It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.
- It would do the world good if every man would compel himself occasionally to be absolutely alone. Most of the world s progress has come out of such loneliness.
- No sex, age, or condition is above or below the absolute necessity of modesty; but without it one vastly beneath the rank of man.
- Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.
- Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things.
- The ablest men in all walks of modern life are men of faith. Most of them have much more faith than they themselves realize.
- The essential element in personal magnetism is a consuming sincerity - an overwhelming faith in the importance of the work one has to do.
- The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.
- Watteau is no less an artist for having painted a fascia board while Sainsbury's is no less effective a business for producing advertisements which entertain and educate instead of condescending and exploiting.
- What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.
- When you are through changing, you are through.
[edit] Quotes of others about Barton
- Bruce Barton's advertising career started quite accidentally. One of Collier's clients, the Harvard Classics "Dr. Elliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books," had traditionally been sold on double page spreads. At the last minute, the pressroom man told Barton that he had an extra quarter page left to fill. Barton tore a page out of one of the classics, and asked his readers , "This is Marie Antoinette riding to her death. Have you ever read her tragic story?" Barton had created a unique benefit for his readers— cultural enrichment in less than fifteen minutes a day— and this simple idea sold over 400,000 sets of the classics. ~ Steven Fox in The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators (1984)
- I knew I'd never be more than a second-rate business man and a second-rate writer—so I decided to add the two things together and be a first rate advertising man. ~ "Barnham Dunn" (a character based on Barton) in The Virgin Queene (1928) by Harford Powel Jr; quoted in The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators (1984) by Steven Fox
[edit] External links
- A report on Bruce Barton (a tribute site)
