Quote

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.

William Bernbach

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Bernbach
Age: 71 †
Born: 1911
Born: August 13
Died: 1982
Died: October 2
Art Director
Economist
Entrepreneur
The Bronx
New York City
Moment
Moments
Another
Trap
Past
Ads
Thing
Traps
Good
Isolation
Research
Design

More quotes by William Bernbach

Image
I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
The real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.
William Bernbach
Image
Find the simple story in the product, and present it in an articulate and intelligent, persuasive way.
William Bernbach
Image
Never do anything yourself that you can hire someone else to do, especially if they can do it better.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
Logic and over-analysis can immobilise and sterilize an idea. It's like love. The more you analyse it, the more it disappears.
William Bernbach
Image
Word of mouth is the best medium of all.
William Bernbach
Image
If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!
William Bernbach
Image
The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
William Bernbach
Image
A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.
William Bernbach
Image
Advertising is the art of persuasion.
William Bernbach
Image
In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.
William Bernbach
Image
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.
William Bernbach
Image
Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
William Bernbach
Image
Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.
William Bernbach
Image
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
Image
In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.
William Bernbach
Image
Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It's the most practical thing a business-man can employ.
William Bernbach
Image
Our job is to bring the dead facts to life.
William Bernbach