• ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER

The huge treasure Bill Bernbach left us is still amazingly relevant today. Bill did not write books, but he let his works speak for him.

To understand the importance of his legacy we have, in addition to his works, his brilliant “operational” intuitions (a couple of examples: the idea that creatives should work in teams, the invention of the Art and Copy pair, which is still used today all around the world), the many quotes and statements from his interviews.

The list of reasons for his greatness is endless. All the things he said are fully true, valid and pulsing with life as today as sixty years ago.

In one of his most penetrating observations Bill pointed out that people who works in advertising have to be able to tell the inner human nature (what Bill calls “unchanging man”) from its exterior counterpart (“changing man”, who follows trends and the evolution of technology). Of course Bill warns that communication should focus on the changing man.

And yet, despite the importance of Bill Bernbach in the history of advertising, it seems that while Bill is celebrated and praised in public, maybe even worshipped, he is in fact rejected and ignored in everyday life.

On the one hand, Bill seems a hero from a distant past where advertising and its rules were different; a wise grandfather, someone we cannot but agree with, but whom we betray as soon as we turn our back. As if in our “real world” his ideas were pointless.

On the other hand, the reasons why Bill is so relevant today are the same for which Bill is feared. But why should we be afraid of Bill? Probably the main reason lies in the fact that Bill was a rebel.

Bill said that marketing research is useless, or more precisely that it is useless if we do not interpret it; that advertising is not a science. That there is no formula to create an effective ad and just thinking it is an illusion. All this is extremely subversive.

Bill said and did things that are simple to understand but difficult to do. Everything he said or did was the product of a long personal research – a challenge to the world. Yes, Bill is challenging. He does not allow you to relax on your chair after you have finished your work.

But mostly important, Bill says the truth. He talks about the importance of truth. That’s why Bill’s teaching is strikingly necessary today. Bill offers an ethical outlook on advertising which is so genuine that it can even seem heretical. The revolutionary charge of his ideas is still powerful.

What does it mean telling the truth in advertising? Let me make an example, taking into account Italy’s situation over the last months of 2011. When Silvio Berlusconi’s political decline began, Italian press described his fall as a “return to reality”. Sentences such as “Italian fairy tale is not working anymore” or “Reality finally defeated advertising” often occurred. What is interesting is, of course, not Berlusconi’s personal and political fall but the language used to describe his fall because it tells us how advertising is perceived in Italy, or at least how is perceived by most Italians.

After taking into exam some of the statements which followed Berlusconi’s decline, we can notice that:

1) The word “adman” is used as a weapon against Berlusconi, thus making the reader infer that advertising is dangerous. It is used as an insult, or if not an insult, it denotes contempt and derision. From this point of view the advertiser is seen as a monster, a villain who plots against Italian people. He is compared to prostitutes and pushers (no offence for prostitutes and pushers!) and on a moral ladder is only a step higher than serial killers.

2) If “advertiser” is a synonym of liar, cheater, manipulator, or magician, then advertising is the opposite of truth, a denial of reality.

3) Berlusconi never worked as an adman, he just owned (many) media agencies. He earned a fortune selling media spaces, so thanks to advertising, but he never worked in the field. So using the word “adman” in connection with Berlusconi is uncorrect. “Berlusconi = adman” is the real manipulation, which, of course, turns to advertisers’ disadvantage.

Let’s get back to Bill. The dramatic need of Bill. That many ads are vulgar and cheap is a sad truth. But that’s exactly the point. Like there is good journalism and bad journalism, good cinema and bad cinema, there is good advertising and bad advertising. That someone who deceives, manipulates and distorts reality for political reasons is not a good journalist is clear to everyone. One would think that he is not even a journalist. Similarly, the same form of art that gave birth to Citizen Kane is responsible for “Christmas Holiday” movies as well (a series of cheap Italian movies whose success is mainly based on sexual puns). But no one would ever think that cinema is just “Christmas Holiday” movies. Funnily enough, this simple reasoning is forgotten when it comes to advertising.

That’s why we desperately need Bill. Because he said, and above all put into practice, things that have shown that advertising is not what many people believe. That it can be different.

Advertising can tell the truth. What’s more, it must tell the truth. It can and must show respect to the people it speaks. An ad can invite people to join a conversation, without paternalism. It can excite people and still be intelligent, ironic, or paradoxical. It can stimulate people, not inhibit, to use their brains. It can show values, anticipate feelings and thoughts still dormant in a society, and maybe even play a social role.

Good advertising (we could go so far as to say “real advertising”) does not offend, does not deceive, does not impose. Bill taught us that advertising is the opposite of illusionism. Bob Levenson, Bill’s friend and great advertiser, said: “the message we put on television or in print must be truthful. Because if we make tricks with truth, we are dead”.

Brands are part of everyday life, whether we like it or not. The crisis we are experiencing could be the opportunity for brands and advertiser to search for authenticity. That’s what we say as advertisers. We are not ashamed of what we say or what we are. And why should we be ashamed? We have Bill to protect us.

Guido Cornara is professor at the IULM University, where he teaches advertising communication.