Best of 2015: Top 10 quotes of the year

As 2015 nears its end, Campaign Asia-Pacific is reviewing the year by featuring one best-of (or worst-of) list each day. We've got 12 days' worth of the biggest PR disasters, deals, pitches, launches and people moves; the best and worst campaigns; and the oddest stories and quotes we've heard. Click here for all our year-in-review features from not only 2015 but also past years.

Here, in no particular order, are our 10 favourite quotes of the year:

“He is a unicorn among goats.”

Havas Worldwide’s Levant Guenes showed himself to be in awe of the agency’s healthcare division boss, VJ Yamat. He had to repeat this sentence several times to make himself heard above all the bleating.

“Yes, I’m from Unilever, but I’m not just a wallet full of advertising spend.”

Geoff Seeley suggested agency folk might want to be a bit more subtle when approaching marketers. See, it's all about storytelling, not just asking for handouts.

“Clients say they want strategy, but a lot of them wouldn’t know strategy if it landed on their heads.”

A free man after leaving AIA, Paul Groves livened up a Marketing Society industry discussion by saying what many agency heads feel but would never dare express themselves.

“The full-service toothpaste is out of the tube.”

Pithy as always, Sir Martin Sorrell made it clear that there can be no going back.

“We believe staunchly that content is king but also that distribution is God.”

We will not single this offender out but continue to staunchly hope that he and a long list of others lay their ‘content is king/queen/emperor’ analogies to rest in 2016. 

“It’s definitely a job that requires both nipples.”

Huge’s Michael Koziol’s had an interesting take on the post-Mad Men advertising industry.

“If we knew we were about to die, we might all turn to Tinder.”

The FT’s Caroline Daniel made a bold admission at Cannes.

“When I saw the selfie stick on Kickstarter, I thought to myself, what tosser would buy one of those? The answer is clearly almost every tosser on a planet teeming with tossers.”

Chris Clarke of Digitas LBI shared a candid observation on an Asian phenomenon that has gone global.

Still image from '"The Dangers of Selfie Sticks PSA", a video by Pizza Hut

“The guys who make commercials consider what they do storytelling, but often it's preposterous; it's not real.”

Dan Sloan of Nissan wondered why industry people still find it so hard to tell the difference between entertaining people and pushing corporate messages. 

“Most CEOs and CMOs in this country are most likely over 65. What do they know? They haven't even used a smartphone.”

Yoshiaki Ito, the Tokyo-based president and CEO of Haier Asia-Pacific, said he finds it absurd that 'grandpas' should be trying to lead the IOT revolution.

See all year-in-review features