William Bernbach Quotes
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A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.
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Our job is to bring the dead facts to life.
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The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.
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There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules. They can tell you that people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this short or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there's one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
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The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
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Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature... what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action. If you know these things abut a person, you can touch him at the core of his being.
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The world has progressed to the point where it's most powerful force is public opinion. And I believe that in this world it is not the great book or epic play, as once was the case, that will shape that opinion, but those who understand mass media and the techniques of mass persuasion...We must not just believe in what we sell. We must sell what we believe in. And we must pour a vast energy into those causes.
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It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.
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You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen.
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All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarise that society. We can brutalise it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.
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Word of mouth is the best medium of all.
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An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
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The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, will succeed. Without them he will fail.
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In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
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Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!
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A principle isn't a principle until it costs you something.
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Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.
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Find the simple story in the product, and present it in an articulate and intelligent, persuasive way.
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Forget words like 'hard sell' and 'soft sell.' That will only confuse you. Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you're saying it like it's never been said before.
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Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
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Logic and over-analysis can immobilise and sterilize an idea. It's like love. The more you analyse it, the more it disappears.
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Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
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The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry.
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It's not just what you say that stirs people. It's the way that you say it.
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Those who are going to be in business tomorrow are those who understand that the future, as always, belongs to the brave.
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Never do anything yourself that you can hire someone else to do, especially if they can do it better.
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The real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.
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We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it. We are so busy listening to statistics we forget we can create them.
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