Career
He is known for having said that, "The object of your advertising should not be to communicate with your consumers or your prospects at all but to terrorize your competition"s copywriters."
A non-conformist who railed against the norms of so-called scientific advertising in his day, Gossage introduced several innovative techniques to the advertising practice that would only become appreciated decades after his death. Gossage is credited with introducing the media theorist Marshall McLuhan to media and corporate leaders thereby providing McLuhan his entry into mainstream renown. AdAge.com calls Gossage a "copywriter who influenced ad-makers worldwide."
Out of a re-purposed firehouse nestling in San Francisco"s old Barbary Shore neighborhood, Gossage created the headquarters of his advertising agency (Freeman, Mander & Gossage).
The building would become a salon where many of that era"s influential thinkers congregated, from John Steinbeck to Buckminster Fuller, Tom Wolfe to Stan Freberg.
In 2012 the multi-award winning Creative Director Steve Harrison authored a book about the life of Howard Gossage entitled "Changing the world is the only fit work for a grown man".