As long as the attitude is to only show the sheet metal, then automobile advertising will continue to be wretched.
Every automobile ad looks alike.
I ran for political office in the Hamptons once in a war I was having with the village. I came in, there were four people running, and I came in around third. It was over my food market - they arrested me. I just wanted to go for office because I thought it would be an interesting to do.
If you look at 'Mad Men,' it's set in the wrong decade. The style of Mad Men is really the 1950s, not the 1960s.
Let's face it: in advertising, you are paid more, but you die younger. It's not very forgiving. Like sports stars, you're in it during your better years, and then you're out looking for work.
I gotta be involved. I still write ads; I still run around and rally the creative people.
There's something that goes on in a new-business meeting that's wonderful to watch. It's like showtime. There are people who are nervous, and there are people who are jittery, and there's so much drama and so much at stake.
Husbands and wives fight, and when the wife is packing up, the husband says, 'Don't leave! I'm gonna change!' Marriages stay together because people promise to change.
Sad to say, negative advertising really works.
The Democrats are going the way of Burma Shave and Crisco - products everyone loved and had in their homes. But they got old. They didn't have anything new to say about the product, and after awhile, they died.
Today's merger makers are not ad people; they're building communications companies.
My day is spent hiding from people.
Most of the people in advertising now - mention Bill Bernbach to them, they don't know.
I am a temporary amusement.
Humor works, and it's the best way to get attention without spending a lot of money.
Nobody can write a good 30-second commercial.
The French are simply incapable of telling the truth.
I think people are getting bored of parties, and hosts are terrified nobody's going to show up. So they have to start entertaining them before the party even starts.
The whole idea of a spokesman is a joke and a fraud if you drop someone like a hot potato if there's controversy.
No one wants to risk a million dollars on a few laughs. The big, flashy commercials are out. The soft sell is out.
