“Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like.”

— Walter Slezak

Quoted as "Actor Walter Slezak's version of "keeping up with the Joneses"": in LOOK magazine, Vol. 21 number 14 (July 9, 1957) p. 10 http://books.google.com/books?id=-NERAQAAMAAJ&q=%22impress+people%22, in LOOK's permanent category of quotes "WHAT THEY ARE SAYING".
Already in 1905 W.T. O'Connor had stated that advertising was "The gentle art of persuading the public to believe that they want something they don't need" in "Advertising Definitions", in Ad Sense, Vol. 19, No. 2 (August 1905), p. 121 http://books.google.com/books?id=zPRKAAAAYAAJ&q=%22W.+T.+O%27CONNOR%22, and in 1931 one finds Will Rogers being quoted with advertising "as something that makes you spend money you haven't got for things you don't want." But this complete statement with the finale "to impress people you don't like" seems to have originated with Slezak. However, Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/21/impress/ instead traces the quotation back to American humorist Robert Quillen, who wrote in 1928: "Americanism: Using money you haven't earned to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like."

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Do you have more details about the quote "Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like." by Walter Slezak?

Walter Slezak 10

actor 1902–1983

Dave Ramsey (1960) American financial advisor

Source: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.”

Will Smith (1968) American actor, film producer and rapper

Cf. LOOK Magazine 1957: Actor Walter Slezak's version of "keeping up with the Joneses": "Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like." p. 10 books.google http://books.google.com/books?id=-NERAQAAMAAJ&q=slezak.
Misattributed

“advertising […] makes you spend money you haven't got for things you don't want.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

As the Connecticut Yankee Hank Morgan / Sir Boss in the 1931 film A Connecticut Yankee (after Mark Twain). Cf. Ivan G. Shreve Jr: Thrilling days of yesteryear blogspot.de/2009/09 http://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.de/2009/09/grey-market-cinema-connecticut-yankee.html. Also quoted in Printers' Ink magazine, volume 156, issue 1 (1931), p. 3 books.google https://books.google.com/books?id=-oULAQAAIAAJ&q=arthur's and Advertising Outdoors Vol. 2, No. 8 (August 1931), p. 19 https://books.google.com/books?id=rZcXAQAAMAAJ&q=definitions, https://books.google.com/books?id=rZcXAQAAMAAJ&q=spend+money = http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Advertising_Outdoors_1000005193/373
As quoted in ...

“The only reason you don't go on holiday, is 'cause you have to spend money.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

Xfm 21 June 2003
On Stephen Merchant

“We work jobs that we hate, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like.”

movie Fight Club (1999)

“Americanism: Using money you haven’t earned to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like.”

Robert Quillen (1887–1948) American journalist

Paragraphs by Robert Quillen, Detroit Free Press, 4 June 1928. (via Newspapers.com)

“The kibbutz way of life is not for everyone. It is meant for people who are not in the business of working harder than they should be working, in order to make more money than they need, in order to buy things they don't really want, in order to impress people they don't really like.”

Amos Oz (1939–2018) Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual

"The Great Disruption", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 17 Jun 1999, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545kh

“In a free-market economy, the consumer is king: labor unions don't run things, business people don't run things, bankers don't run things, politicians don't run things, but the success of a business depends on how people spend their money.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

In response to the question "What is your opinion on direct democracy, where the citizens themselves make law, rather than elected representatives?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-nfaTZNWcI (May 14, 2015)
2015

“If you want to make a million you don't have to understand money, what you have to understand is people's fears about money”

William Gaddis book J R

Source: JR

“Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like.”

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Walter Slezak 10

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