“The Thinkers” Essay by Conor Rabbett For Seamus McKinney Introduction (100 Words) In this essay, I will be going into depth about William “Bill” Bernbach, one advertising’s critical figures. He was at the spearhead of the advertising industry with his great advertising skills. I’ll be focusing on his style & what impact’s he had on the world’s advertising industry. I’ll also finish off my essay with a detailed conclusion on why I personally like Bernbach’s style and how I could potentially carry out techniques used by him, in my future advertising products. Details and Analysis of chosen critical thinker (400 Words) William “Bill” Bernbach was born into Rebecca & Jacob Bernbach, a Jewish family, in The Bronx, NYC. Bill went to New York City public schools and in 1932, he acquired a Bachelor of the Arts degree from NYU (New York University). He majored in English but he also studied business admin, philosophy and music - by playing the piano. In 1933, Bill got a job running the mailroom at the Schenley Distillers. Will took charge and he wrote an advertisement for Schenley’s American Cream Whiskey, which he got into the best contacts and from there, the advertisement was a success. Following this, he got a promotion to the advertising department. He eventually left the Schenley Distillers in 1939, where he started to ghostwrite, when you write material for someone else who is the named author, for the head of the 1939 World’s Fair - Grover Whalen. Fast-forwarding to a year later, he joined the advertising industry at the William Weintraub agency. Bill ended up serving 2 active years in World War 2 and after that, he had a role at Coty, which was followed by a role at Grey Advertising. He started there as a copywriter but by 1947, he was promoted to Creative Director. Soon after, William became frustrated and annoyed with all the similar ness that he saw in the advertising industry. In 1949 alongside James Doyle, someone who he met while working at Grey Advertising, and Maxwell Doyle, someone who was already running his own tiny agency, Bill Bernbach founded their self titled advertising agency in Manhattan, NYC. Bill’s philosophy towards creative advertising was that the way the advertisements were executed was just as important as the actual message content. From its grassroots, Bernbach played a key figure in the writing of the advertising, keeping himself away from the admin & promotional areas of their business - which was left to Maxwell Dane. Bill served as the creative backbone behind the company helping billings increase from approximately $1 Million USD to more than $40 Million USD by the time he had stepped down & retired. The company, DBB (Doyle Dane Bernbach), grew to become the 11th largest advertising agency in the US by 1976 when William stepped down as CEO to become the chairman of the executive committee. Bernbach’s most famous advertising campaign was for Volkswagen, which encompassed such advertisements as “Think Small “ alongside “Lemon”. There are more notable campaigns by Bernbach’s team which also were really successful. Personally, one thing I’ve always loved about Bernbach’s style of advertising was the minimalism. I really like keeping things simple and neat while being straight to the point and such advertisements as “Think Small” in my option are the best kinds as they are super clean but get the message across, no strings attached. Conclusion (100 Words) Overall I personally think William Bernbach is a key influencer in how advertising is done nowadays. For example, look at Apple’s advert style - very minimalistic, like how Bernbach did his adverts. I feel like without Bill and his creative thinking, a lot of adverts today wouldn’t have the characteristics that they do have as he was a very great man when it came to making an effective advertisement. I have used the minimalism style myself in the past on adverts, without even knowing that Bernbach set the base layer of the style, and I do definitely see myself continuing the style in the future. Some Examples Of William Bernbach’s Work References Wikipedia - wikipedia.com - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bernbach Medium - medium.com - https://medium.com/theagency/the-ad-that-changed- advertising-18291a67488c - Mark Hamilton, 2015 Adweek - adweek.com - https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/bill-bernbach-creative- revolutionary-133901/ - Chip Bayers, 2011 Google - google.com - https://g.co/kgs/3NEfHX Oxford Languages - lecico.com - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/ghostwrite .