Quote

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.

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
Jobs
Message
Cleverness
Away
Product
Simplify
Makes
Shining
Tear
Messages
Clients
Smothering
Kill
Shine
Unrelated
Products
Weed
Merchandise
Tears
Sell
Pluck
Instead
Sells
Weeds

More quotes by William Bernbach

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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 real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.
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Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
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Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.
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Word of mouth is the best medium of all.
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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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There is no such thing as a good or bad ad in isolation. What is good at one moment is bad at another. Research can trap you into the past.
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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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It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.
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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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Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
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You cannot sell a man who isn't listening word of mouth is the best medium of all and dullness won't sell your product, but neither will irrelevant brilliance.
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In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
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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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Imitation can be commercial suicide.
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Properly practiced creativity MUST result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent.
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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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Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It's the most practical thing a business-man can employ.
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If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!
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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.
William Bernbach