Comments on: 1947 Ad Manifesto Still Holds True (for PR, Too)

By: Murphy’s Law » Nostalgia and knowledge…

Murphy’s Law » Nostalgia and knowledge… — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:54:22 +0000

[...] Eggertson points to a letter written by Bill Bernbach to his colleagues in the Ad agency business, sixty years [...]

By: Eric Eggertson

Eric Eggertson — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:29:21 +0000

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!

By: Brett

Brett — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:57:35 +0000

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.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:51:30 +0000

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.