skills/campaign-canon/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/avis-we-try-harder-1962.md

---
id: avis-we-try-harder-1962
title: "We Try Harder"
brand: Avis
agency: Doyle Dane Bernbach
year: 1962
country: US
region: north_america
industry: travel
pattern: [P02, P17, P06]
category: integrated
idea_type: advertising
involvement: passive_view
channel: physical
duration: ongoing
goal: [awareness, advocacy]
budget: medium
emotion: [defensive_hope, proud, defiant]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: identity
media_epoch: tv_first
awards: [multiple]
quality_score: 10
scalability: universal
risk: edgy
confidence: high
quality: canonical
source_url: https://www.mumbrella.asia/2018/05/my-favourite-ad-campaign-of-all-time-the-avis-we-try-harder-print-series-of-1962
---

# We Try Harder (Avis · 1962)

## Insight

In 1962, Avis was a perennial #2 to Hertz in car rental and had been losing money for 13 consecutive years. Bill Bernbach's insight was counterintuitive: don't try to out-Hertz Hertz — acknowledge being #2 and make it the most powerful possible brand position. If you're #2, you try harder. If you try harder, you give better service. The limitation becomes the advantage.

## Mechanic

A print campaign: stark layouts, dense copy, direct address. "Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So why go with us? We try harder." The campaigns continued: "Avis can't afford dirty ashtrays." "When you're not the biggest, you have to be the best." Every execution reinforced the #2 position as a service promise. Avis went from losing $3.2 million to profiting $1.2 million in the campaign's first year. The campaign ran for 50 years.

## Why it worked

P06 (limitation as power): acknowledging weakness preempted every competitor attack — Hertz could not attack Avis for being #2 when Avis was already saying it. P02 (enemy or conflict): Hertz is the implicit enemy, never named, always present. P17 (design as idea): DDB's spare, word-heavy layouts communicated through their tone — intelligent, direct, confident — that this was a brand that respected its audience's intelligence. No photography, no lifestyle imagery — just honest language in clean typography.

## Steal

The moment a brand admits its actual position is the moment it earns the right to be believed about everything else it claims. Honesty about weakness is more persuasive than any claim of strength, because the audience already knows the weakness and is waiting to see if the brand will acknowledge it.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p02]]
- Sibling: [[kfc-fck-2018.md|FCK]]
- Sibling: [[apple-get-a-mac-2006.md|Get a Mac (Mac vs. PC)]]
- Emotion match: [[nike-dream-crazy-2018.md|Dream Crazy]]

---

*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*