1947 Ad Manifesto Still Holds True (for PR, Too)
March 23, 2008 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
Big agencies are good at systematizing strategy development, media buying and media contact management.
But can you automate creativity?
How do you keep from turning into a factory for homogenous advertising or public relations?
These question were asked 60 years ago by Bill Bernbach, as his agency began to grow. His response was a manifesto that calls for the nurturing of true creativity:
“… [The] danger is a preoccupation with technical skill or the mistaking of technical skill for creative ability.
“The danger lies in the temptation to buy routinized 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.
“If we are to advance we must emerge as a distinctive personality. We must develop our own philosophy and not have the advertising philosophy of others imposed on us.
“Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.”
Indeed. Except for the use of “man” to include humanity, the manifesto holds true today.
We should never mistake comfortable tactics for effective tactics.
It’s easy to fall back on what has worked in the past.Few people get fired for repeating a successful formula. That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do in every situation.
Link via Brett Duncan.
A lot of companies today want to re-inspire innovation (which I will associate with creativity). But innovation is not an end result, it’s a process. But is intensely personal, too. I’m not sure it can ever be fully automated.
I’m really shocked when I read the whole letter as to how applicable it is today, even though it was written in 1947. To your point, repeating the successful formula may not get you fired, but it also doesn’t get people reading a letter you wrote 60 years ago.
Thanks for the link.
Geoff: You can set up all sorts of processes and incentives to encourage creativity, innovation and pizazz. In the end, there are no guarantees.
Like you say, it’s a very individual thing. Having some dork stand over me with a checklist insisting that I be creative in a prescribed way would have the exact opposite effect.
Managing creative people and creative processes has to be handled with a bit of … creativity!