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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.

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
People
Faster
Product
Fail
Products
Failing
Design
Ads
Great
Campaign
Make
Campaigns

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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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In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
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In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.
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Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
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Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
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It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.
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The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry.
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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 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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A principle isn't a principle until it costs you something.
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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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Persuasion is not a science but an art
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Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.
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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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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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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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Rules are what the artist breaks the memorable never emerged from a formula.
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Imitation can be commercial suicide.
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In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.
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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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