Hertz Corporation: Get Tough campaign
William BaueOverview
Hertz's "Get Tough" campaign was motivated by Avis Rent A Car's anti-Hertz ads from 1962 to 1966. Avis Rent A Car's advertising agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), waged an unre lenting attack on the market leader, Hertz, based on a simple slogan, "We try harder." DDB's campaign convinced many consumers that a basic tenet of capitalism—the notion that competition spurred companies to overachieve in order to survive—applied to Avis but not to Hertz, which could afford to relax its standards because of its stable lead in the rental car market. Although Hertz...