If you’re among the cynical souls harboring doubts that New York is back in full holiday snap, crackle, and pop, consider yourself invited to join the throngs thronging what locals call “CPS” (59th to the unwashed). So many people, so little interest in using the sidewalk to, say, get from point here to point there.     

Considering recent history, that’s actually pretty good news.

For the contrary, you don’t have to schlep far. For example, the other night at a bar overlooking those same meandering herds, I encountered a CTO-type cheerily propounding the view that AI and it’s Artificial General Intelligence progeny were, sans doute, going to drop the price of per a better-than-human robotic worker to $1K/per unit, circa 2030. That’s not per/month. He put a sunny spin on it, which I’ll detail in a later post, but for now, let’s just say the 10-year forecast for humans finding gainful is grim.

But hell with that noise. I really don’t want to linger on the depressing during hall decking. Which is why, mirable dictu, it was so delightful that the legendary Tom Tieche chose just the right moment to drop in with a shamelessly plagiarized list of Bill Bernbach quotes that are just too good to hoard.

In that spirit, here, not exactly suitable for framing, is the gift of wisdom:

"Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula."

"Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It's the most practical thing a businessman can employ."

“There is no such thing as a good or bad ad in isolation. What is good at one moment is bad at another.”

“Research can trap you into the past."

"Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten."

"Imitation can be commercial suicide."

"We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it. We are so busy listening to statistics we forget we can create them."

"Our job is to bring the dead facts to life."

"A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more pcople to know it's bad."

"Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques." 

“The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry."

"Don't confuse good taste with the absence of taste."

"In communications, familiarity breeds apathy."

"An idea can turn to dust or magic depending on the talent that rubs against it."

The real giants have always been poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas."

"If you stand for something. you will always find some people for you and some against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you, and nobody for you."

Word. Happy sharing. Until AGI does it for you.