Bill Bernbach was one of the pioneering American ad men of the mid-twentieth century, now best remembered as a frequently referred to rival in the TV series Mad Men.
One of his most famous campaigns turned conventional wisdom on its head and made a virtue of the client not being the most successful in the market:
On then to his views about messaging in general.
The following words of wisdom in particular have not only aged well but are very applicable to political campaigning too:
The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.
That’s an important extension to the Mary Matalin quote which Ed Maxfield and I used for Chapter 18 of 101 Ways To Win An Election:
The absolute rule of message dissemination and message penetration is consistency and repetition.
Good campaigners apply the lessons of both quotes.
