Advertising Masterclass: Bill Bernbach

Although "Think Small" for VW is regarded as Bernbach's crowning achievement, I would like to draw some attention to this often overlooked Avis contribution. With Avis, Bernbach provided a simple truth with a beautiful twist. Changing perspective and turning a seemingly negative attribute into a positive was so refreshing, so new, so self-effacing that Avis saw its market cap rise from 11%-35% in just a few short years. This strategy of taking a negative attribute of a product and turning it into a positive is certainly a Bernbach innovation and we can see the same methods being employed today by everyone from CP+B to Mother. Remember those Orange ads portraying Orange execs as crass idiots or Pimms as a drink for upper-class twits?
Bernbach's legacy lives on!