尊敬的_______________：
我们的机构越来越大，这是值得高兴的事情。但这也是值得担心的事情，我不介意告诉各位我非常担心。
我担心我们会陷入一个大陷阱，我们会崇拜技巧而忽略实质的东西，我们会追随历史而不是创造历史，我们会湮没在肤浅的事物中，而不是被坚实的事物本质所支撑。我担心创造力的动脉会开始硬化。
广告界有很多优秀的技术人员。他们都是最上道的人，知道所有规则。他们可以告诉你，在广告中使用什么样的人会带来更多的读者，可以告诉你一个句子该有怎样合适的长度，可以告诉你正文应该被分解以便于阅读，他们可以给你一个又一个事实，他们是广告科学家。但这里面有个小问题：
广告从根本上来说，是说服的过程，而说服不是一门科学，而是一门艺术。
我想要我们机构去拥有的，是那令人嫉妒的创意火花，同时我也非常害怕，害怕哪天他们会里里外外都消失殆尽。我不想要学院派，我不想要科学家，我不想要那些总是做着正确事情的人...我想要那些有趣、脑洞大开、能激发灵感的人。
在过去的一年里，我大概见了80位作家和艺术家，其中许多人来自所谓的代理商巨头。令人震惊的是，这些人中真正具有创造力的人是少之又少。当然，他们有专业的广告知识，他们在广告技巧的应用上非常之娴熟。
但仔细观察这些技巧，大家有没有发现这背后的东西？是千篇一律、是精神倦怠、是思想平庸。他们会欣赏和维护广告作品，但只会欣赏维护那些遵守广告规则的部分作品。这就像崇拜教会仪式而不是相信上帝本身那样不妥。
说这么多，并不是说技巧不重要。精湛的技巧会让一个不错的广告人变得更好。
但危险在于，过分关注技巧、或将技巧这种术的层面的东西，误认为创造力；
危险在于，会被那些按照套路公式做广告的人所迷惑；
危险在于，过分迷信那些“曾成功过被验证过的”人才，这不会让我们在竞争中脱颖而出，反而会让我们看起来跟所有人都一样。如果我们要继续精进，我们就必须表现出独特的个性，必须发展我们自己的广告原则，而不是把别人的哲学理念强加过来。
让我们开拓新路。让我们向世界证明，高雅的品味、优美的艺术和流畅的文笔触才是畅销的关键。
比尔·伯恩巴克
1947年5月15日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 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. Butthere's one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and pexsuasion 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 8o people-writers and artists.Many of them were from the so-called giants of the agency field.It was appalling to see hon 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 worshipink a ritual instead of the God.
All this is not to say that technique is unimportant. Superior technical skill will make a good man 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 routinised 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 witing can be good selling.
