David Ogilvy really did print a form of this line — “…wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half,” in Confessions of an Advertising Man (Atheneum, 1963), chapter 3, p. 59; the semicolon version above is the popular clipping — but he handed the credit straight to the first Lord Leverhulme and to John Wanamaker rather than keeping it, as Quote Investigator documents ↗. The earliest match Quote Investigator has found runs decades earlier and credits Wanamaker: a 1919 address printed in Winona Echoes, p. 333, which quotes him saying “about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half.” No letter, speech text or store publication in Wanamaker’s own hand has ever been produced, so even his claim stays unconfirmed.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half” attributed to John Wanamaker, not David Ogilvy. Ogilvy printed it as "...wasted, and the trouble is I don't know which half" in Confessions of an Advertising Man (Atheneum, 1963), ch. 3, p. 59 — the semicolon form above is the popular variant — but he credited the first Lord Leverhulme and Wanamaker rather than himself. The earliest match known to Quote Investigator is Roy L. Smith, "The Salesmanship of Preaching," in Winona Echoes (Winona Publishing Society, 1919), p. 333, quoting Wanamaker: "I am convinced that about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half." No text written or spoken by Wanamaker himself has been traced. Via Quotle.info.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to David Ogilvy. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of John Wanamaker — Philadelphia merchant, advertising pioneer and U.S. Postmaster General. Theme: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The earliest match anyone has found
Earliest match known to QI
Rev. Roy L. Smith, “The Salesmanship of Preaching,” delivered at the Winona Bible Conference, August 1919 — page 333, quoting John Wanamaker
Volume
Winona Echoes: Notable Addresses Delivered at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Bible Conference, Winona Lake, Indiana, August 1919
Where the modern wording appears
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man (Atheneum, 1963), chapter 3, p. 59, printed there as “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half” — where Ogilvy credits Leverhulme and Wanamaker, not himself
Direct source from Wanamaker
None traced. No letter, speech text or store publication in his own words has been produced.
It costs no more to prepare a sermon for three thousand than for three hundred. … Advertising is not a panacea for all Church problems. I do not believe that catchy copy will ever make poor preaching attractive. … John Wanamaker once said, “I am convinced that about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half.” Most church-men are convinced that advertising will pay. They are now interested in the “how.”
Winona Echoes, 1919 · p. 333
Read the wording carefully. This is not the crisp modern epigram, and Smith is not coining anything — he is quoting Wanamaker to a room of clergymen to argue that churches should advertise. The tighter “the trouble is I don’t know which half” phrasing is the form that appears in Ogilvy’s 1963 book.
Quote Investigator’s 2022 investigation ↗ is the anchor: it assembles the whole chronology from partial matches in Printers’ Ink (1890), Gunton’s Magazine (1897) and The Bankers Magazine (1898) through to a 1992 newspaper column, and concludes that Wanamaker received credit in 1919 and is the leading candidate.
The 1919 text checks out in the original. Page 333 of the scanned volume at the Internet Archive ↗ reads: “John Wanamaker once said, ‘I am convinced that about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half.’”
Ogilvy’s role is quoting, not authorship. Wikiquote’s Advertising page ↗ lists the modern wording under John Wanamaker’s name and cites it as quoted in Ogilvy’s Confessions of an Advertising Man, Ch. 3, 1963 — matching Quote Investigator’s account of the disclaimer.
Even the best claim is flagged. Wikipedia’s Wanamaker article ↗ prints this exact popular wording and attaches its own editors’ “Better source needed” notice to the citation.
The “the trouble is I don’t know which half” form appears in David Ogilvy’s Confessions of an Advertising Man (Atheneum, 1963), chapter 3, p. 59, which prints it as “…wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half” — the semicolon version on this page is the popular variant, not the 1963 text. That book remains in copyright in the United States, so treat its text as in-copyright and quote it with attribution. No rightsholder in the sentence itself is established: the saying predates Ogilvy by decades and he disclaimed it. The 1919 Winona Echoes volume excerpted above is public domain, but its wording is different, and since no text in Wanamaker’s own words has been traced there is no earlier edition to point to for this phrasing.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Four men, one sentence, no receipts
This is the most contested aphorism in advertising, and the popular credit to David Ogilvy is the one version its own supposed author would have rejected.
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The modern creditDavid Ogilvy quoted it, disclaimed it
Ogilvy used the line in Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963), chapter 3, which is almost certainly why his name stuck to it. But Quote Investigator records that he disclaimed credit ↗ and named the first Lord Leverhulme and John Wanamaker instead. Wikiquote’s Advertising entry ↗ files the same wording under Wanamaker, citing Ogilvy’s book as the place it was quoted.
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The British claimWilliam Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme claimed by his son, 1931
Quote Investigator dates this claim to The East Kent Times of 28 February 1931, where Lever’s son William Hulme Lever reported his father saying half the money spent on advertising was wasted but he could not say which half — and notes that the late date reduces its probative value ↗. Wikiquote’s Leverhulme page can only source its version to a 1974 secondary book ↗.
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Later driftGeorge Washington Hill and William Wrigley Jr. 1980 and 1992
Hill’s turn comes in a Los Angeles Times item of 28 March 1980, which gives the former American Tobacco Company president the “fifty cents of every dollar” form — 34 years after his death in 1946 — and Wikiquote separately notes the saying has also been pinned on Hill ↗. Wrigley does not appear as a claimant until a Naples Daily News item of 5 April 1992, one of the latest entries in Quote Investigator’s chronology ↗. Neither claim has a contemporary source.
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Even the leading candidateJohn Wanamaker best claim, still unproven
Every dashboard, pixel, attribution model and marketing-mix study in existence is a descendant of this one sentence. It is the oldest and most durable admission in advertising: the money demonstrably works in aggregate, and refuses to explain itself in detail. That is why the line has been pinned on nearly every famous ad man in turn — it flatters whoever says it as candid rather than clueless.
The irony is that the person who did the most to popularise it, David Ogilvy, is the one figure in the story who went out of his way not to claim it. He quoted it in Confessions of an Advertising Man and named Leverhulme and Wanamaker in the same breath. The internet then quietly deleted the attribution and left his name on it.
The line survives because it is still true, which is exactly why nobody can prove who said it first.
Why the trail keeps going cold
Quote Investigator’s chronology shows the idea circulating in trade papers well before anyone attached a name to it — partial matches in Printers’ Ink (1890), Gunton’s Magazine (1897) and The Bankers Magazine (1898). The 1911 Golden Book of the Wanamaker Stores gets close with a different image entirely: common advertising as barrels of seed in which half the seed is dead.
The named attributions then arrive in a suspicious order. Wanamaker gets the credit in 1919, and again in 1922 and 1925 in the “fifty cents out of every dollar” form. Leverhulme’s claim surfaces only in 1931, from his son. William Wrigley Jr. does not appear until a newspaper column in 1992. Late attributions to famous men are how sayings get adopted, not how they get born.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1838–1922 · Philadelphia merchant, advertising pioneer and U.S. Postmaster General
Wanamaker built one of America’s first department stores in Philadelphia and more or less invented modern retail advertising along the way — price tags, money-back guarantees, the first full-page newspaper ad in 1879 ↗, and the hiring of John Emory Powers as the world’s first full-time copywriter. He spent money on advertising at a scale nobody had tried before, which is precisely why the complaint about not knowing which half worked sounds so plausible in his mouth. He later served as U.S. Postmaster General from 1889 to 1893, and died in December 1922.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented match and the source of the modern wording
Roy L. Smith, “The Salesmanship of Preaching,” in Winona Echoes: Notable Addresses Delivered at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Bible Conference, Winona Lake, Indiana, August 1919 (Winona Publishing Society, 1919), 333 — the earliest match known to Quote Investigator, quoting John Wanamaker. The familiar wording descends from David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man (New York: Atheneum, 1963), chap. 3, p. 59, which Quote Investigator transcribes as “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half” — the semicolon form used here is the popular variant. Ogilvy credits the first Lord Leverhulme and Wanamaker rather than himself.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half’?” Last verified 30 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/half-the-money-i-spend-on-advertising-is-wasted-the-trouble/