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Imitation can be commercial suicide.

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
Imitation
Commercial
Suicide
Design

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An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
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Rules are what the artist breaks the memorable never emerged from a formula.
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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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Find the simple story in the product, and present it in an articulate and intelligent, persuasive way.
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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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Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
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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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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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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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Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.
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Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
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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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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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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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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.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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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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For the Flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed. The same is true to cultivate good thinking.
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Advertising is the art of persuasion.
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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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