The Secret Of All Effective Originality

From Communications of an Advertising Man (1961). Burnett was defining originality not as inventing entirely new visual or verbal elements but as finding unexpected juxtapositions of familiar ones. He held that genuine communication requires shared reference points — images and words the audience already understands — recombined in a way that makes them see something fresh. This principle guided campaigns such as the Jolly Green Giant and the Marlboro Man.