As the DDB agency brand looks set to be retired following Omnicom’s IPG acquisition, we take a look back at its visionary co-founder, Bill Bernbach, whose impact on the advertising industry has resonated through the ages. Bernbach is remembered for his modern, bold approach to creativity and for making the impossible possible.
Bernbach and his co-founders, Ned Doyle and Maxwell Dane, broke all the established rules in advertising. Copywriters and artists, instead of working on separate floors, worked as a team. Research, which “leads to conformity,” was replaced by imagination.
“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 in the past,” Bernbach said.
Bernbach didn’t believe in a formulaic approach to selling products—he sought emotional resonance, grounded in the craft of persuasion.
“There are a lot of great technicians in advertising, and unfortunately, they talk the best game. They are the scientists of advertising. But there’s one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion, and persuasion happens to be not a science but an art”. Under his leadership, ad men became “creative geniuses”.
Bernbach’s legacy lives on today in ads and creative thinking, and in pop culture moments such as Mad Men, whose characters reference Bernbach’s distinct approach to creativity.
And at a time when many are reconsidering brand purpose and activism, his quote: “A principle is not a principle until it costs you money,” rings truer today than ever.
Volkswagen’s ‘Think Small’
In the late 1950s, Bernbach was faced with a conundrum. Tasked with selling Volkswagen to the American public at a time when infatuation with stylish vehicles made in Detroit reigned supreme, how would DDB convince the same public that a small, cheap, foreign car with some unfortunate links to the Third Reich was worth buying?
Bernbach’s campaign for DDB in 1959, ‘Think Small,’ not only made Volkswagen “as American as apple pie” but was recognised by Advertising Age in 1999 as the greatest ad of the 20th century. ‘Think Small’ was atypical for its time; showing a car on a plain background was unheard of.
Referring to the Volkswagen Beetle as a “lemon” was a daring act. The term was used to describe cars that were not only foreign, but often defective—not exactly painting an ideal image of the car. But it was exactly this honesty and self-deprecation that landed with consumers.
The VW Beetle was pitched just as the 1960s counterculture movement was starting up. The low-cost, no-nonsense Beetle appealed to those who turned their backs on the establishment.
The German car brand had a 60-year relationship with DDB, which was extended last year.
The Volkswagen logo’s awkwardly set position between the second and third columns disarms the reader by showing up where it’s least expected. The car is shown using a photo of the vehicle, not a fancy illustration like other agencies opted for at the time. Placed in the upper left corner, in an ocean of white space, it broke conventions and heralded a more refined style in creative campaigns.
The ad was printed in black and white, in part because Volkswagen didn’t have enough money at the time to print it in colour (that has subsequently changed somewhat). Though this created a bold effect when it was seen next to the other colourful pages in Life Magazine, where it first appeared.
Mamma Mia, That’s a Spicy Meatball!
Alka Seltzer’s ‘Spicy Meatball’ spot in 1969 was designed by Bernbach, Roy Grace, and Evan Stark. This was yet another atypical ad for its time. Consumers were used to seeing a clean image of a product, but this ad doesn’t introduce the product it’s selling until the very end, in a blooper-like style that has since been replicated many times.
Actor Jack Somack sits at a table with his on-screen wife, played by Fran Lopate, standing beside him. Somack takes several bites of the spaghetti with meatballs and exclaims, “Mamma mia, that’s a spicy meatball!” Viewers might think the ad is selling a pasta sauce—it isn’t. At the end, it’s revealed the ad is a for Alka-Seltzer to cure Somack’s indigestion.
Ever since, the catchphrase, “That’s a spicy meatball!” has been used across pop culture. In the 1994 movie The Mask, Jim Carrey uses the catchphrase after ingesting a bundle of dynamite. In an episode of The Office, Michael Scott uses the quote after chomping into a cold slice of pizza.
Avis’ ‘We Try Harder’
In 1962, Avis needed a new advertising campaign. Since its inception, the car rental company had trailed behind the market leader, Hertz. DDB decided to embrace Avis’ second-place status as a way to spotlight the brand’s customer service. “When you’re only No. 2, you try harder,” said the new tagline. “Or else”.
The ‘We Try Harder’ ads saw Avis go from losing $3.2 million USD to earning $1.2 million USD in one year. It was the first time the company had been profitable in more than a decade. From 1963 to 1966, Hertz tried to ignore the Avis campaign, yet the market-share percentage gap between the two brands kept shrinking, going from 61-29 to 49-36.
Today, the impact of that campaign is still felt. Avis gained a trusted reputation by using its underdog position to its advantage. While it’s still second to Hertz, Avis holds about 24 per cent global market share, compared to Hertz’s 36 per cent.
Bernbach’s approach to advertising
Bernbach believed that advertising was an art, not a science. He moved the industry away from a mechanical selling of products to a storytelling-grounded, artistic approach.
“However much we would like advertising to be a science-because life would be simpler that way-the fact is that it is not. It is a subtle, ever-changing art, defying formularization, flowering on freshness and withering on imitation; where what was effective one day, for that very reason, will not be effective the next, because it has lost the maximum impact of originality,” he said.
His approach rings true to the industry today, as emotional resonance and storytelling are considered more important than ever.
“Principles endure, formulas don’t. You must get attention to your ad. This is a principle that will always be true. How you get attention is an ever-changing thing. What is attractive one day may be dull the next”.
“Working from a method or a formula is guaranteed to do the same thing to the effectiveness of an idea that time does to a loaf of bread. Ideas must be hot out of the oven if they are to arouse the appetite. That is why, in communications, imitation is commercial suicide”.
“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”.
Amazingly, Bernbach’s spirit lives on in a dedicated LinkedIn page posing to be Bernbach giving creative wisdom from beyond the grave.
“Do you want to know the secret to immortality? I can tell you,” the bio reads. “Yes, it’s me, Bill Bernbach – the man, the myth, the legend of the advertising field. Alas, my name has now become the headline for my tombstone.
“I’ve been in this crazy business for longer than I care to admit, but I can honestly say I still love it. In fact, I’m still crafting ads from the great beyond, coming up with promotional campaigns for our planet. It’s a hard sell”.
In an act of prescience, Bernbach may even have predicted the demise of DDB. Not from beyond the grave, but while he was still alive.
Writing in a letter in 1947, while he was working at Grey, Bernbach said, “Our agency is getting big. I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of substance, that we’re going to follow history instead of making it”.
As the world’s largest holding company is set to consolidate, it is as good a time as any to reflect on the fundamentals of creativity. That, along with selling you something, a good advertisement tells a human story, touches a nerve, or meets you where you’re at.
“Let us prove to the world,” Bernbach said, “that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling”.
