JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

landmark texts, notably Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923),
Propaganda (1928), and “The Engineering of Consent” in
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
(1947).
Several of his social ideas have had long-lasting effects.
He helped make it acceptable for women to smoke in public,
sponsoring demonstrations in which debutantes gathered on
street corners to light up “torches of freedom.” In his later
years, Bernays was a public opponent of smoking and took
part in antismoking campaigns.
In his autobiography, Biography of an Idea, in 1965, Bernays
recalled a dinner at his home in 1933 where Karl von
Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers,
was talking about Joseph *Goebbels and his propaganda plans
to consolidate Nazi power. “Goebbels had shown Weigand his
propaganda library,” Bernays wrote. “Goebbels, said Weigand,
was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for
his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This
shocked me … Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany
was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate,
planned campaign.”
[Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)]
BERNBACH, WILLIAM (1911–1982), U.S. advertising executive.
Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he served in the U.S. Army
in World War II and then worked at Grey Advertising, one
of a few Jewish-owned advertising agencies in New York. His
modest upbringing during the Depression and public school
education instilled a strong sense of gratitude for the achievements
that lay before him during his remarkable career in
advertising.
In 1949, seeking to develop an environment based on
the primacy of creativity, he joined with Ned Doyle, another
Grey vice president, and with Maxwell Dane, a small agency
owner, to form Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). They specialized
in subtle, intelligent copy and graphics. So successful were
these efforts that in less than 20 years the agency had become
the sixth largest in the U.S. Bernbach’s influence on the contemporary
advertising industry was profound. His creative
leadership won him many awards.
One of his most famous slogans was “You don’t have
to be Jewish to love Levy’s” (rye bread). That campaign elevated
Levy’s to the largest seller of rye bread in New York and
helped Bernbach and his partners acquire the first of many
national and international clients. Other well-known slogans
were “Think Small” for a small-car manufacturer and “We Try
Harder Because We’re Only Number 2” for the Avis car-rental
company. In 1954 DDB determined that the uniqueness of Dr.
Edwin Land’s Polaroid breakthrough could best be demonstrated
on live television, so they hired some of the most popular
celebrities (Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, and later
Mariette Hartley and James Garner) to demonstrate the benefits
of the Polaroid instant camera. The relationship between
Polaroid and DDB lasted almost 30 years, and the campaign
became one of DDB’s most widely recognized.
berne
In its early years, DDB gained its reputation from its
ad campaigns for Jewish clients. Orbach’s department store,
Levy’s, and El Al airlines provided the ad agency the opportunity
to develop noticeable work, which would eventually gain
the attention of Volkswagen. Soon to follow was El Al Israel
Airlines’ introduction of its trans-Atlantic service from Europe
to the U.S. While most airlines would never have shown
an image of the ocean in its advertising, for fear of reminding
readers of the possibility of a crash, Bernbach faced this
fear head on. El Al was the only airline at the time that could
offer non-stop service between the two continents. Turning
that to El Al’s advantage, DDB created the “torn ocean” ad
with the headline “The Atlantic Ocean will be 20% smaller.”
The one-time ad was so powerful, that within one year, El
Al’s sales tripled.
Bernbach and his partners raised Jewish and other minority
advertising agencies into the mainstream of the medium.
In 1969 alone, more than 100 new Jewish and Italian
agencies opened, ensuring Bernbach’s legacy for decades to
come. Largely due to Bernbach’s business acumen, DDB’s
$775,000 off-Madison Avenue business in 1949 evolved into
a multibillion-dollar international powerhouse by the mid-
1980s, when it merged with Needham Harper Worldwide to
create DDB Needham. Bernbach was one of the first inductees
into the Copywriters Hall of Fame in 1961 and is in the Advertising
Hall of Fame.
Bibliography: J.W. Young, A Technique for Producing Ideas
(1965); D. Higgins, The Art of Writing Advertising (1986); B. Levenson,
Bill Bernbach’s Book (1987); N. Millman, Emperors of Adland (1988); K.
Stabiner, Inventing Desire (1993); S. Fox, The Mirror Makers (1997).
[Isadore Barmash / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
BERNE (Ger. Bern), capital of Switzerland. Jews in Berne,
engaged in moneylending, are first mentioned in a document
of 1262 or 1263. In 1293 or 1294 several Jews were put to death
there in consequence of a *blood libel, and the remainder expelled
from the city. However, an agreement was made with
the citizenry through the intervention of Adolf of Nassau permitting
the Jews to return, against a payment of 1,500 marks
and a moratorium on debts owed to them. During the *Black
Death (1348) the Jews in Berne were accused of poisoning the
wells, and a number were burnt at the stake. The Jews were
expelled from Berne in 1392 after Christians were permitted
to engage in moneylending (1384). Although between 1408
and 1427 Jews were again residing in the city, the only Jews to
appear in Berne subsequently were transients, chiefly physicians
and cattle dealers. After the occupation of Switzerland
by the French revolutionary armies and the foundation of the
Helvetian Republic in 1798, a number of Jews from Alsace and
elsewhere settled in Berne. They required a special license to
engage in commerce and were obliged to keep accounts in
German or French instead of their customary Alsatian Judeo-
German. These restrictions were removed in 1846. An organized
Jewish community was officially established in 1848: a
synagogue was consecrated in 1855, and a cemetery in 1871.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 471