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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
Suicide
Design
Imitation
Commercial

More quotes by William Bernbach

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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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The heart of creativity is discipline.
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Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
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Advertising is the art of persuasion.
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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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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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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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Never do anything yourself that you can hire someone else to do, especially if they can do it better.
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If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!
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Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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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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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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Rules are what the artist breaks the memorable never emerged from a formula.
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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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Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.
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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.
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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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The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
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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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