Leo Burnett started his career, working for Cadillac in Detroit, for Lafayette Motors and the Homer McKee Agency in Indianapolis, and for Erwin Wasey & Company in Chicago. He created his own agency in 1935. Now, it is known as Leo Burnett Worldwide.
Developing his advertising concepts, Burnett followed Walter Lippman's philosophy of creating an image of a product. Leo Burnett quotes are famous all over the advertising world. One of them is: "You have to be noticed, but the art is getting noticed naturally, without screaming and without tricks." Before Burnett, in the centre of advertisement was a long text description of the product, the main point of which was to tell why this product was better than the others. It was Leo Burnett, who focused on a style and started creating icons as a symbol of the product. Short and felicitous Leo Burnett quotes replaced long text descriptions. He was trying to find visual triggers that could effectively influence consumers.
Burnett made a great contribution into the development of advertising. He was a member of the Advertising Council since its inception in 1942 (it was known then as the War Advertising Council).Due to his tireless and effective work on many projects, Leo Burnett received many prestigious awards: honors of accomplishments in war advertising and for work with the Freedoms Foundations, for his book Good Citizen, published in 1947; the Special Merit Award was given to him by the New York Art Directors Club; he was a co-recipient of the Annual Gold Medal Award; Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism by the University of Missouri.
A leader in creating new advertising ideas, Leo Burnett led a very active public life: he was a member of the executive committee of the Committee for Economic & Cultural Development of Chicago, a director of the Hospital Planning Council for Metropolitan Chicago and a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Society of Crippled Children & Adults.
Burnett inspired his staff for greater work and better results in advertising. It is not a surprise that Leo Burnett quotes are famous and actual even today. Seeing advertising as a "fun" side of a business, he used nonlinear advertising strategies, preferring a catchphrase to an explanation. He was sure that a visual form is more persuasive than a carefully reasoned argument.
Richard B. Ogilvie, the Governor of Illinois, wrote, "The death of Leo Burnett brings to mind how much the force of his personality and his directness of purpose contributed to public-service campaigns and, indeed, to the highest practice of the advertising art." One of Leo Burnett quotes - ?Advertising says to people, 'Here is what we have got. Here is what it will do for you. Here is how to get it.'? is the basis of modern advertising.
Below you can find some of the most popular Leo Burnett quotes: ?Anyone, who thinks that people can be fooled or pushed around, has an inaccurate and pretty low estimate of people - and he will not do very well in advertising.?; ?Creative ideas flourish best in a shop, which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.?; ?Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.?; ?Fun without sell gets nowhere, but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious.?