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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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It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.
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The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
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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.
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Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
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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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Word of mouth is the best medium of all.
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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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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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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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Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.
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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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The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry.
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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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Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
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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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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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Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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Those who are going to be in business tomorrow are those who understand that the future, as always, belongs to the brave.
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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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