• by July 14, 2009

Bill Bernbach was the founder of doyle dane bernbach - a giant. A man way ahead of his time. And yet he is far less famous today than, say, David Ogilvy. Maybe because unlike the mightily prolific Ogilvy, Bernbach never published any of his thoughts on advertising.

But fortunately, someone did. First in the form of a little book of quotes titled Bill Bernbach Said that captures some of the most prescient words from the mere two or three articles and speeches he ever delivered. I find myself going back to this slim volume often. And every time I do, I find something that speaks to the moment (even though it was first spoken over 40 years ago). One of them jumped off the page while I was browsing last week: "Today, everybody is talking 'Creativity,' and frankly, that's got me worried. I fear lest we keep the good taste and lose the sell. I fear all the sins we may commit in the name of 'Creativity.' I fear that we may be entering an age of phonies."

The irony in this statement becomes apparent when you consider that Bernbach is credited with igniting the forest fire of creativity that overtook the advertising industry in the 1960s. At a time when the hidden persuaders of Madison Ave. were using pseudo science to persuade their clients and their client's customers, Bernbach challenged the establishment with provocative work and provocative words. "Rules are what the artist breaks, the memorable never emerged from a formula. ... If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic ... Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It's the most practical thing a businessman can employ."

So why was this instigator of the creative revolution in American advertising so worried about everybody talking about creativity?

Because like all good advertising people, he recognized that creativity is a means to an end. That the creativity we practice always has a commercial objective. And when we lose sight of that, we end up producing second-rate art or intellectual curios.

And frankly, that's got me worried.

Creativity has become a buzzword in the media planning community in the last few years. As media agencies separated themselves from creative agencies and as the new breed of independent communications strategists emerged, the planners in those companies have worked to adopt some of the lateral thinking traditionally
practiced by their agency siblings. So creative media planning, creative content delivery, and idea-centric communications strategy have understandably become familiar expressions.

All of which is to be applauded. The best planning has always been a creative endeavor. The best media planners have always been conceptually grounded. And the best among them have come to realize that good ideas and appropriate context can make a quantitative difference to the effectiveness of a plan.

But I worry that in the race to be ever more creative, those planners, particularly younger ones, have forgotten that their principal role is not to be creative; it is to sell their client's products.

I've long been jealous of the adeptness with which a skilled media planner can scale an audience, quantify a delivery and project the commercial achievement of a campaign. It's not a skill that creative agency people have. And it's something that is warmly embraced by commercially-minded clients. It's not something that need be restricted to traditional measured media either. Every medium has a cost - whether it's a media, production or a manpower cost. And those costs should be compared to determine whether a viral video is a better or worse gamble than a street-art campaign, for example.

But I can't remember when I last saw that kind of simple, unique, skilled thinking in a communications plan. What I'm seeing instead are "cool" ideas and audience-appropriate integrations. And I'm left scratching my head wondering whether that integrated opportunity is going to deliver an audience large enough to meet our marketing objectives and whether the depth of engagement will connect with our audience or alienate them.

By all means, let's map the consumer's media day. Let's think about the ideas and the opportunities when we can engage them best. But let's put some rigor and, hell, maybe even some numbers into our thinking. Or as Bernbach would have said, let's keep the taste - but don't forget the sell.