William Bernbach Quotes

Advertising must respect the intelligence of its audience and if it does not prompt them to think, it will be instantly dismissed.

Writing good ads is easy when you have something to say.

The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.

The first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise... and cultivate the delightfully vague.

I think daily deals are a good idea. Any ad people view as content is a good ad, and that's true for daily-deal ads too.

Great advertising triggers an emotion in you. It has purpose. It touches a nerve, and that provokes a reaction.

Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.

It is not the purpose of the ad or commercial to make the reader or listener say, 'My what a clever ad.' It is the purpose of advertising to make the reader say, 'I believe I'll buy one when I'm shopping tomorrow'.

The business of the advertiser is to see that we go about our business with some magic spell or tune or slogan throbbing quietly in the background of our minds.

With the way I worked, a client can give me everything they know about something, and then I go away and come back with advertising that knocks them out of their chair. They finally understand what kind of a company they are.

If you look at the heritage of the best advertising, you can make stuff that is great for both readers and advertisers. I don't think Don Draper would have loved banner ads.

A lot of consumers actively enjoy advertising, especially fashion print ads and clever TV commercials. The nostalgic cable channel TVLand features not only vintage shows but also vintage commercials.

Too many ads that try not to go over the reader's head end up beneath his notice.

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture - and forget that merchandise must be sold.

It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.

There is no such thing as a permanent advertising success.

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

There was a period of time in America where the advertising world actually went to the housewives of America and had them write jingles that would appeal to them. It was actually brilliant marketing.

We inside Diesel are the first consumers of our advertising. We make ad campaigns for our own amusement - that's why they succeed.

American advertisers rely on 'essentially illogical' approaches to determine their advertising budgets.

If your plan is to put a product out there that people can see and understand, then by golly, we're going to get along just fine.

I was the first advertising person who people could identify with.

Advertising is the price companies pay for being unoriginal.