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Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.

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
Adapt
Techniques
Technique
Idea
Ideas

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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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Research can trap you into the past.
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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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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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The heart of creativity is discipline.
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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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An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.
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The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.
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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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It's not just what you say that stirs people. It's the way that you say it.
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Creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ.
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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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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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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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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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In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal.
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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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For the Flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed. The same is true to cultivate good thinking.
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