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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Bernbach
Age: 71 †
Born: 1911
Born: August 13
Died: 1982
Died: October 2
Art Director
Economist
Entrepreneur
The Bronx
New York City
Tears
Sell
Pluck
Instead
Sells
Weeds
Jobs
Message
Cleverness
Away
Product
Simplify
Makes
Shining
Tear
Messages
Clients
Smothering
Kill
Shine
Unrelated
Products
Weed
Merchandise

More quotes by William Bernbach

Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
Logic and over-analysis can immobilise and sterilize an idea. It's like love. The more you analyse it, the more it disappears.
William Bernbach
Image
An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
William Bernbach
Image
Persuasion is not a science but an art
William Bernbach
Image
Find the simple story in the product, and present it in an articulate and intelligent, persuasive way.
William Bernbach
Image
It's not just what you say that stirs people. It's the way that you say it.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
William Bernbach
Image
Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
William Bernbach
Image
Those who are going to be in business tomorrow are those who understand that the future, as always, belongs to the brave.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, will succeed. Without them he will fail.
William Bernbach
Image
Research can trap you into the past.
William Bernbach
Image
Our job is to bring the dead facts to life.
William Bernbach
Image
Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.
William Bernbach
Image
The real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.
William Bernbach
Image
In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
William Bernbach