Durstine was undeniably one of the most influential ad-men in the history of the industry. His impact is so far reaching, and so essential to many underlying assumptions about advertising that a truly comprehensive list of his contributions would have to be very, very long indeed. Rather than create such a list, what appears below is a very short list, which attempts to reduce Durstine's contributions to a few, essential items.

1) Founding member of one of the oldest, and most successful advertising agencies ever: BBDO Worldwide.

2) Recognized the commercial impact of broadcast, and helped develop our current commercial broadcast system.

3) Introduced a strong code of ethics into the field of advertising.