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Chinese Proverb –or– Marketing Slogan?

"One Look is Worth Thousand Words" - Printers' Ink

"One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words" - Chinese Proverb?

Ancient Chinese proverb? Confucius say? Actually… Two advertisements promoting streetcar placards from the 1920s are the source of the common proverb “One picture is worth a thousand words.” A version of the phrase first appeared in the advertising trade journal Printers’ Ink in 1921 with Fred R. Barnard claiming ” ‘Buttersweet is Good to Eat’ is a very short phrase but it will sell more goods if presented with an advertising picture of the product.” Oddly, it took Barnard some six years to follow his own advice, when he ran an advertisement with the proverb-to-be highlighted in a sidebar with Chinese characters adjacent to a sample pictorial advertising layout for Royal Baking Powder.