Career
After graduation, in 1933 Bernbach took a job running the Schenley Distillers mailroom. This was during the Depression and a family connection got him the job. He pro-actively wrote an ad for Schenley's American Cream Whiskey, which he got into the right hands and the ad ran. He was promoted to the advertising department.
He left Schenley in 1939 to ghost-write 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. He saw two years' active service in World War II and thereafter had a role at Coty, followed by a position at Grey Advertising. He commenced there as a Copywriter but was promoted to Creative Director by 1947.
In 1949 with Ned Doyle whom he had met at Grey, and Mac Dane who was already running a tiny agency, Bernbach founded their eponymous ad agency in Manhattan.
From its founding 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. He 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 America by 1976, when Bernbach stepped aside as Chief Executive Officer to became chairman of the executive committee.
Notable campaigns of Bernbach's are, We Try Harder for Avis Car Rental, Mikey for Life Cereal, You Don't Have to be Jewish to Love Levy's for Levy's Rye Bread, and It's so simple for Polaroid. His most notable campaign was for Volkswagen, which included ads such as Think Small and Lemon.
Read more about this topic: William Bernbach
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