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Don't confuse good taste with the absence of taste.

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
Taste
Good
Confuse
Absence

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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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Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
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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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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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Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.
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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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It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.
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Advertising is the art of persuasion.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
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Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
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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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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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Persuasion is not a science but an art
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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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An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
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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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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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Our job is to bring the dead facts to life.
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