He liked earthy, vernacular phrases, and kept a folder on his desk labeled Corny Language. ‘I do not mean maxims, gags or slang in its ordinary sense, but words, phrases and analogies which convey a feeling of sod-buster honesty and drive home a point. I sometimes run across these phrases in a newspaper story or in a chance conversation. I chuck them into the folder and one of them might show up in an ad years later.’ When he saw somebody on his staff using the product of a competitor, he issued this memo: ‘As you well know, your income and mine are derived 100 per cent from the sale of the products of our clients. ‘During the 36 years I have been in the agency business I have always been naïvely guided by the principle that if we do not believe in the products we advertise strongly enough to use them ourselves, we are not completely honest with ourselves in advertising them to others. ‘I recognize the unconscious spirit of rebellious independence that exists in all of us, and the compulsion you or I may have to demonstrate that we wear no man’s yoke. I have always felt, however, that there are better and more rewarding ways of doing this than in conspicuously avoiding or flouting the products of the people who pay our way. ‘I guess my feeling is pretty well summed up in the remarks of the vice president of a competitive agency. When asked why he was smoking a not-too-popular brand of cigarette which his company advertised, he replied: “In my book there is no taste or aroma quite like that of bread and butter.” ’ Leo deplored the tendency of mega-agencies to put their own aggrandizement ahead of service to their clients. Not long before he died, he told his staff: ‘Somewhere along the line, after I’m finally off the premises, you may want to take my name off the premises, too.