24 Facts About William Bernbach

William Bernbach was an American advertising creative director.

William Bernbach was one of the three founders in 1949 of the international advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.

William Bernbach directed many of the firm's breakthrough ad campaigns and had a lasting impact on the creative team structures now commonly used by ad agencies.

Bill Bernbach was born to a Jewish family in The Bronx, New York City to Rebecca and Jacob Bernbach.

William Bernbach attended New York City public schools and in 1932 earned a bachelor's degree from New York University.

William Bernbach had majored in English but studied business administration, philosophy and music, playing the piano.

In 1933, William Bernbach took a job running the Schenley Distillers mailroom.

William Bernbach pro-actively wrote an ad for Schenley's American Cream Whiskey, which he got into the right hands and the ad ran.

William Bernbach left Schenley in 1939 to ghostwrite for Grover Whalen, the head of the 1939 World's Fair and the following year he entered the advertising industry at the William Weintraub agency.

William Bernbach saw two years' active service in World War II and thereafter had a role at Coty, followed by a position at Grey Advertising.

William Bernbach commenced there as a copywriter but was promoted to creative director by 1947.

Soon, William Bernbach became frustrated with the sameness he saw in all advertising.

In 1949, with James Edwin Doyle, whom he had met at Grey, and Maxwell Dane, who was already running a tiny agency, William Bernbach founded their eponymous ad agency in Manhattan.

From its founding William Bernbach played an integral role in the writing of advertising, distancing himself from the administrative and promotional aspects of the business which were left to Dane.

William Bernbach served as the creative engine behind the agency helping billings to increase from approximately US$1 million to more than US$40 million by the time he retired.

DDB grew to become the 11th largest advertising agency in the United States by 1976, when William Bernbach stepped aside as chief executive officer to become chairman of the executive committee.

William Bernbach's campaign for Avis Rent-a-Car effectively pioneered "underdog advertising" and was an instant hit with the market.

William Bernbach was noted for his devotion to creativity and offbeat themes, a legacy that has credited him as a major force behind the Creative Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

William Bernbach is credited with being the first to combine copywriters and art directors into two-person teams, a model that still exists in advertising agencies today.

William Bernbach won many awards and honors for his work within the advertising industry during his career.

William Bernbach was inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame in 1964, received the Man of the Year of Advertising Award in 1964 and 1965, and The Pulse Inc.

William Bernbach was named "Top Advertising Agency Executive" in 1969 and received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1976 and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in the same year.

William Bernbach designed the Advertising Hall of Fame "Golden Ladder" trophy.

At the Schenley Distillers mailroom in the 1930s, one of William Bernbach's assistants was Evelyn Carbone, a college student at Hunter College, who addressed labels on outgoing mail.