DO THIS OR DIE!

Do This Or Die
There have been a number of great manifestos drafted in the history of man.
But there is one you’ve probably never heard of. It was a print ad written by agency Doyle Dane Bernbach in the late 60s or early 70s. But it was actually much more than a print ad, it was a manifesto. A manifesto aimed at both the advertising industry and the advertisers themselves.
Since the week marks the end of our Age of Persuasion series, we thought it was the perfect note to go out on. Because it embodies all of our thoughts, feelings and beliefs about advertising and marketing.
Here are the words to that ad:
DO THIS OR DIE
Is this ad some kind of trick?
No. But it could have been.
And at exactly that point rests, a do or die decision for American business.
We in advertising, together with our clients, have all the power and skill to trick people.
Or so we think.
But we’re wrong. We can’t fool any of the people any of the time.
There is indeed a twelve-year-old mentality in this country; every six-year-old has one.
We are a nation of smart people.
And most smart people ignore most advertising because most advertising ignores smart people.
Instead we talk to each other. We debate endlessly about the medium and the message. Nonsense. In advertising, the message itself is the message.
A blank page and a blank television screen are one and the same.
And above all, the messages we put on those pages and on those television screens must be the truth. For if we play tricks with the truth, we die.
Now. The other side of the coin.
Telling the truth about a product demands a produce that’s worth telling the truth about.
Sadly, so many products aren’t.
So many products don’t do anything better. Or anything different.
So many don’t work quite right. Or don’t last. Or simply don’t matter.
If we also play this trick, we also die.
Because advertising only helps a bad product fail faster.
No donkey chasses the carrot forever. He catches on. And quits.
That’s the lesson to remember.
Unless we do, we die.
Unless we change, the tidal wave of consumer indifference will wallop into the mountain of advertising and manufacturing drivel.
That day we die.
We’ll die in our marketplace.
On our shelves. In our gleaming packages of empty promises.
Not with a bang. Not with a whimper.
But by our own skilled hands.
Doyle Dane Bernbach Incorporated
(written by the Bob Levenson of the legendary 60's agency Doyle Dane Bernbach)
The 1960’s and early 70’s came to be known as the Age of Persuasion in the history of advertising. Some of the other great names belonging to this age are :
John Noble
Phyllis Robinson
Julian Koenig,
Helmut Krone
David Abbott
Ed McCabe
and many others….
Some of the creative triumphs of this period were the
Avis
Polaroid and
Chivas Regal
Ads
You have to know a little about each of the above great and writers and collect and study the ad campaigns of Avis Polaroid and Chivas Regal alongwith all possible related information on them.