If only more people were as passionate about their work. And did they realize how lucky they were to have Saul Bass anywhere near their logo redesign project?

For more on advertising history, check out these articles:

A Brief History of Political Advertising in the USA

The Stella Artois "Reassuringly Expensive" Campaign

A Profile of Bill Bernbach

If you haven't seen the movie Helvetica, you should rectify this immediately. It's a fascinating look at the birth and life of a typeface that is loved by most (and hated by a select few). Check out the review here, then find a copy and enjoy it.

Read it. Be inspired. Read it again.

When he wrote this, he was just 36 years old. He left to form Doyle Dane Bernbach, and created the greatest advertising agency of the last half-century. He also created some of the best ads ever produced. He was, in no uncertain terms, an advertising legend. And this was his biggest lesson - "the most powerful element in advertising is truth." Read more about Bill Bernbach right here.

May 15, 1947

Dear ___________:

Our agency is getting big. That's something to be happy about. But it's something to worry about, too, and I don't mind telling you I'm damned worried. I'm worried that we're going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we're going to worship techniques instead of substance, that we're going to follow history instead of making it, that we're going to be drowned by superficialities instead of buoyed up by solid fundamentals. I'm worried lest hardening of the creative arteries begin to set in.

There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules. They can tell you that people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this sort or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there's one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

It's that creative spark that I'm so jealous of for our agency and that I am so desperately fearful of losing. I don't want academicians. I don't want scientists. I don't want people who do the right things. I want people who do inspiring things.

In the past year I must have interviewed about 80 people - writers and artists. Many of them were from the so-called giants of the agency field. It was appalling to see how few of these people were genuinely creative. Sure, they had advertising know-how. Yes, they were up on advertising technique.

But look beneath the technique and what did you find? A sameness, a mental weariness, a mediocrity of ideas. But they could defend every ad on the basis that it obeyed the rules of advertising. It was like worshiping a ritual instead of the God.

All this is not to say that technique is unimportant. Superior technical skill will make a good ad better. But the danger is a preoccupation with technical skill or the mistaking of technical skill for creative ability. The danger lies in the temptation to buy routinized men who have a formula for advertising. The danger lies In the natural tendency to go after tried-and-true talent that will not make us stand out in competition but rather make us look like all the others.

If we are to advance we must emerge as a distinctive personality. We must develop our own philosophy and not have the advertising philosophy of others imposed on us.

Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.

Respectfully,

Bill Bernbach"

A recent article I wrote on three great challenger brands should tell you everything you need to know about the "David and Goliath" strategy. If you're a small brand, you have less money and less media muscle. BUT, you are nimble, you can take bigger risks and once you have engaged the competition, they start spending their money to advertise your name. It's always a win-win.