The Big and Small of it All

The Small Idea Coming from the Stables of a Big Agency

Headlines – Part 4

I was just running through a list of great ads and then it struck me: why must I look for anything else when there’s the, by now much overused Bill Bernbach VW classic, “Think Small”? This ad to me is also a classic example of how copy and art ought to go together. But that, on its own, merits to be a worthy subject of another post. And so without much ado let me hasten to proceed with the purpose of this post, which is, the headline must focus on a single big idea.

And I’ll tell you some more reasons why I call this ad a true blue-blooded classic. It delivers on all the relevant elements of a good headline.

In an age when America was besought with big cars (and pretty damsels in the ads suggesting that if you take the car you get the girl as well) came an ugly small car. And Bernback had a difficult problem to solve: to get the consumer to accept a small car. And from the difficult proposition was born the deceptively simple VW ad: a tiny picture of the small ugly car in the middle of a huge stretch of white space. 

Two famous words urged the people to think differently. True to his philosophy, copy and art worked in perfect harmony and how!

Do I need to explain myself more?

What lesson do you take away from this post?

Like I said there are many. That is why it is a classic. But the one I would like to draw your attention to is the single-minded focus with which Bernbach went to address the issue of persuading the consumer to give the small car some thought.

No ad would be worthy of mention if it did not focus on a single big idea.