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The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.

William Bernbach

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William Bernbach
Age: 71 †
Born: 1911
Born: August 13
Died: 1982
Died: October 2
Art Director
Economist
Entrepreneur
The Bronx
New York City
Marketing
Advertising
Elements
Powerful
Truth
Element

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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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Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
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Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
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Advertising is the art of persuasion.
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No matter how skillful you are, you can't invent a product advantage that doesn't exist. And if you do, and it's just a gimmick, it's going to fall apart anyway.
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An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
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Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.
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Research can trap you into the past.
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Don't confuse good taste with the absence of taste.
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I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.
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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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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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Our job is to sell our clients' merchandise... not ourselves. Our job is to kill the cleverness that makes us shine instead of the product. Our job is to simplify, to tear away the unrelated, to pluck out the weeds that are smothering the product message.
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You have to live with your product, you have to know it through and through, you have to look at it, understand it, love it then, and only then, you can crystallize in one clear thought, one single theme, what must be conveyed about the product to the consumer.
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Persuasion is not a science but an art
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Nobody counts the number of ads you run they just remember the impression you make.
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Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed... but dull?
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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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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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The real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.
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