Doyle Dane Bernbach Advertising Agency

Doyle Dane Bernbach is acknowledged for revitalizing the advertising field during what was considered to be a lackluster drought of creativity during the 1940s. The industry was strife with "hyperbolic slogans, movie-star testimonials, and exaggerated claims" (Meggs 403). Everything was being thrown and stuffed down the throats of consumers; there was an overwhelming plethora of ads screamed out  exclamation points!!! and ~~~images~~~, but it was all presented sloppily and there was too much of it! It sort of reminds me of the current advertisements that surround us, such as billboards on every highway or advertisements on every multimedia channel, such as the radio, television, Internet, etc. True, there are some advertisements that of course took the intelligent approach of Doyle Dane Bernbach and are wittily executed and done with finnese (there are even some commercials that I ENJOY watching, like the ones especially saved for the golden time of the Olympics), but for the majority there are rather crude ones that just flash at us, such as the multitude of pop-up spam ads that slimily attack us every chance they get while we're browsing the net.

(...looks all too painfully familiar? Yup...)

Well, let's return back to the foundation of what made the masterminds behind Doyle Dane Bernbach so innovative and revolutionary regarding the "Creative Revolution" of advertisement. Unlike their big-named competitors, the firm started out with only about 13 employees and half a million bucks to start-off their risky endeavor. Three main contributors were copywriter Bill Bernach, Phyllis Robinson, and art director Bob Gage. This team worked to make imagery fuse seamlessly well with a conceptual expression of an idea. They had writers work accordingly with the art directors, in what were called the ultimate "creative teams". This was actually a revolutionary (though it seems only logical) approach to advertising tactics during the time.

These teams worked together to extract out the best qualities of a product and advertise them well. They didn't infuse their ads with clutter, but rather, made sure to apply enough white, negative space in order to emphasize the object that was more important. There would be an eye-catching visual, a headline that was bold, and typographic descriptions that were factual and witty rather than rubbish. Most imagery was metaphorical or interesting enough to tickle the audience's brains and give them a rush out of seeing the picture. The Doyle approach was to treat the audience intelligently (or have them think they were being treated intelligently), making the advertisement have a more lasting impression.

Doyle Dane Bernbach certainly prospered and expanded greatly from its tiny team in New York to a huge corporation that modernly exists as "DDB Worldwide". It paved the path for many advertising firms and changed the way that people did advertisements. It was more artistic and worthwhile to create advertisements that were full of substance compared to garbage that would catch peoples' eyes because they were flashy but rather than a "good flashy", it was a disturbance in their eyes, like sunlight blinding one's eyes while driving. 

Examples of wit in my opinion include the Vitamin Water passages, that, unlike most boring water bottles, include a quip or witty passage about the product. The Apple ads also are simplistic, yet have a bold, impactful headline that have made the products so admired and the advertisements so attractive. I feel like the Apple advertisers are the spiritual lineage of Doyle Dane Bernbach in a way, since they are so innovative in their advertising strategies and everyone's copying them because they're so successful. 

Works Cited:

Meggs, Phillip B. Meggs History of Graphic Design. 5th. New jersey: John Wiley, 2012. 360. ebook.

<http://www.transatlanticperspectives.org/entry.php?rec=35>

<http://us.ddb.com/who-we-are/roots.html>

<http://www.historyofads.the-voice.com/the-creative-revolution>