Your report should include:

1. You name and a title of your report

2. Give a brief biography of the person or agency
3. Describe their major contributions to advertising or marketing
4. Give some examples of their work (visual or content)
5. Lasting influence (some people in the 21stcentury using one of
their techniques.
6. Cite sources in APA style- you should have 4 or 5 sources.

Bill Bernbach:
Bernbach’s philosophy seems obvious today but was revolutionary at the time. He believed in
concept based advertising, in which an idea became the crucial ingredient of an ad. About 1940
he met Modernist Paul Rand, an influential graphic designer known for his blending of design
and art. Rand was known for his edgy approach to images and their symbology. He used
typography and illustration to create highly original pieces. The pair ended up working with
each other at the Weintraub Advertising Agency. Both men believed that a singular idea should
be the goal of a campaign and the two of them spent many lunch hours wandering the streets
of Manhattan discussing their ideas.

Working as a creative director at Grey Advertising in 1947, Bernbach wrote a letter which has
since become famous. The letter was addressed to the Grey Board of Directors and was a plea
to support creativity in advertising. He wrote: “The danger lies in the temptation to buy
routinised men who have a formula for advertising. The danger lies in the natural tendency to
go after tried-and-true talent that will not make us stand out in competition but rather make us
look like all the others.” He concluded with “Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world
that good taste, good art and good writing can be good selling”.

This letter fell on deaf ears. Within a few years Bernbach left Grey and started his own agency
with a couple of partners calling it Doyle Dane Bernbach. Free to set up his agency the way he
wanted, DDB became known for its creative risk taking. Bernbach is quoted as saying: “I have
no rules for people. I just want them to do what comes natural to them, but to do it in an
effective way. So that they’re doing their own thing, but they’re doing it in a sharp and
disciplined way to make it work”.
Bernbach’s belief that “good taste, good art and good writing”
could be good selling was proved.

Bernbach also pioneered the concept of combining copywriters and art

directors into teams of creative equals. Those teams weren’t producing art for
art’s sake. While Bernbach famously rejected his contemporary David Ogilvy’s
devotion to data (“I warn you against believing that advertising is a science” is
just one of Bernbach’s aphorisms on the topic), he wanted his advertising to be
efficient. He just thought that indulging the divine spark was the best way to
save a buck. “Properly practiced, creativity can make one ad do the work of
10,” Bernbach said.

The influence of the Think Small campaign is still prominent in the ads that we see
today. Even in our team (shoutout to the digigals of i4 asia!), we are greatly inspired
by this story. In every ad that we create, we always make sure that we put in a creative
heart and we stay true to the brand.

How Bernbach Changed Everything

Bernbach’s revolutionary ideas about creativity and his keen insights into
human nature gave birth to modern advertising. Before Bernbach, the high
priests of advertising believed in rules. They tried to turn advertising into a
science
But why didn’t the creative directors of the 1950s value simplicity and realism? Because it’s exceptionally
hard to go against accepted wisdom. That wasn’t the way advertising was done in the decade of the
Fifties.

Almost all of the 1950s auto ads (137 advertisements, or 94 percent) showed people in the ads.
How else was a creative director going to demonstrate the pleasure that car buyers might feel
about their new acquisitions?

Almost all of them (135 advertisements, or 92 percent) used artwork, not photography. How else
was a creative director going to make the cars look long and low and beautiful?
Most of them (102 or 70 percent) used multiple illustrations. Some single-page advertisements
had as many as eight separate illustrations. How else was a creative director going to
communicate all of the car’s exciting features except by using a number of different
illustrations?

Almost all the ads were in color with hand-lettered headlines, big illustrations and large
logotypes. How else was a creative director going to communicate the excitement of buying a
new car?

Some typical automobile headlines from the 1950s:

Buick: “You can make your ‘someday’ come true now.”

Cadillac: “Maybe this will be the year.”

Oldsmobile: “You’ve got to drive it to believe it!”

Chevrolet: “Filled with grace and great new things.”

Now compare these ads with “Think small.” The Volkswagen ad was in black and white with a
small illustration, lots of white space and a headline totally lacking in news value. Everybody
knew that Beetles were small cars.

At the time the ad ran, Volkswagen had been in the American market for nine years, had sold
more than 350,000 vehicles and had generated a lot of favorable publicity.

In retrospect, it’s easy to see that the difference between the 1950s automobile ads and the
1960s Volkswagen ads. It’s the difference between complexity and simplicity. Between
artificiality and realism.

But why didn’t the creative directors of the 1950s value simplicity and realism? Because it’s
exceptionally hard to go against accepted wisdom. That wasn’t the way advertising was done in
the decade of the Fifties. Especially automobile advertising.

People don’t want to be different. They want to be better. Clients want advertising à la mode.
And most creative directors want the same thing. They want advertising “in the fashion” of the
times, only better.

That’s why it’s hard to recognize a great advertising idea. It doesn’t look right because it goes
against accepted wisdom.
Reference:
 PAUL SUGGETT. (JULY 27, 2018). ADVERTISING INDUSTRY PROFILE: BILL B ERNB ACH.
Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/advertising-industry-profile-bill-bernbach-38613
 Former Chairman & CE O, Doyle, Dane, Bernbach (DDB); Doyle, Dane, Bernbach (DDB) .
Retrieved from http://advertisinghall.org/members/member_bio.php?memid=540
 Perspectives in Advertising Management (1969); Image: Bill Bernbach, via Bill.)
 Chenxinpan. (September 23, 2014). Bill Bernbach – Father of Advertising. Retrieved
from https://pandigitalwriting.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/bill-bernbach-father-of-advertising/
 Chip Bayer. (August 8, 2011). Bill Bernbach: Creative Revolutionary. Retrieved from
https://www.adweek.co m/brand -marketing/bill -bernbach-creative-revolutionary-
133901/.
 Al Ries. ( August 2009). The Advertising Genius Of Bill Bernbach. Retrieved from
https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2009/08/the-advertising-genius-of-bill-
bernbach.html#.XEoW8lVKj3g