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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

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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
Stand
Find
Nothing
Something
Always
People
Nobody

More quotes by William Bernbach

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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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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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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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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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Research can trap you into the past.
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In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.
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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 great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.
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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 difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry.
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In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
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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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It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.
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I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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Never do anything yourself that you can hire someone else to do, especially if they can do it better.
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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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Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
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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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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