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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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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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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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A principle isn't a principle until it costs you something.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
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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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The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry.
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Don't confuse good taste with the absence of taste.
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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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The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
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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 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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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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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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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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In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.
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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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Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.
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Rules are what the artist breaks the memorable never emerged from a formula.
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