fl. 1920s · American advertising manager, Street Railways Advertising Co.
Fred R. Barnard was an advertising manager who, in the trade journal Printers’ Ink, ran the slogan promoting pictures in streetcar ads — “One look is worth a thousand words” (1921), escalated to “One picture is worth ten thousand words” (1927). To lend it authority he deliberately branded it a Chinese proverb, and later reportedly admitted he did so “so that people would take it seriously.” The earlier and simpler form of the thought was voiced by newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane around 1911–1915. Neither man, and certainly not Confucius, is the source of any genuine ancient saying here.