In March 1911, the Syracuse Advertising Men's Club held a banquet to discuss journalism and publicity. This was reported in two articles. In an article in
The Post-Standard covering this event, the author quoted
Arthur Brisbane as saying: "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." In an article in the Printers' Ink, the same quote is attributed to Brisbane. A similar phrase, "One Look Is Worth A Thousand Words", appears in a 1913 newspaper advertisement for the Piqua Auto Supply House of
Piqua, Ohio. Early use of the exact phrase appears in a 1918 newspaper advertisement for the
San Antonio Light, which says: One of the Nation's Greatest Editors Says: One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words The San Antonio Light's Pictorial Magazine of the War Exemplifies the truth of the above statement—judging from the warm reception it has received at the hands of the Sunday Light readers. The modern use of the phrase is generally attributed to Fred R. Barnard. Barnard wrote this phrase in the advertising
trade journal ''
Printers' Ink, promoting the use of images in advertisements that appeared on the sides of streetcars. The December 8, 1921, issue carries an ad entitled, "One Look is Worth A Thousand Words." Another ad by Barnard appears in the March 10, 1927, issue with the phrase "One Picture Worth Ten Thousand Words", where it is labeled a Chinese proverb. The 1949 Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases'' quotes Barnard as saying he called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously." Nonetheless, the proverb soon after became popularly attributed to
Confucius. The actual Chinese expression "Hearing something a hundred times isn't better than seeing it once" (,
p bǎi wén bù rú yī jiàn) is sometimes introduced as an equivalent, as
Watts's "One showing is worth a hundred sayings". This was published as early as 1966 discussing persuasion and selling in a book on engineering design. ==Equivalents==