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

More quotes by 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
Rules are what the artist breaks the memorable never emerged from a formula.
William Bernbach
Image
In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.
William Bernbach
Image
Persuasion is not a science but an art
William Bernbach
Image
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
Image
Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
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
A principle isn't a principle until it costs you something.
William Bernbach
Image
For the Flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed. The same is true to cultivate good thinking.
William Bernbach
Image
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?
William Bernbach
Image
If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some people against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you, and nobody for you.
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
An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
William Bernbach
Image
Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
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
It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.
William Bernbach
Image
Research can trap you into the past.
William Bernbach
Image
A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It's the most practical thing a business-man can employ.
William Bernbach