Some advertising jobs are just.., jobs. Others stay with you forever. I was lucky enough to get hired at Chiat/Day just after Steve Jobs had been reinstated as Apple's CEO. Once the brilliant "Crazy Ones" TV spot aired, we had exactly five weeks to create launch work for the iMac, and ended up producing two campaigns simultaneously - one featuring Jeff Goldblum the other showcasing the iMac in all its beauty. AD Susan Alisangan and I created work for both directions. Lee Clow and Ken Segall were Creative Directors, while Joe Pytka* and Mark Coppos were the Directors.
*Joe Pytka directed "War." It ran one time. Then Jobs decided he hated it. Cue Mark Coppos...
Mark shot five scripts in one day. Jobs approved all of them and they ran for the next month.
Mark also shot a bunch of "product" spots below, three of which were apparently Steve Jobs' favorites. He complimented me on them in a meeting once and then, without missing a beat, asked me why I wrote "such shitty print copy." Right in front of my boss, Lee Clow. Fun times.
We created a range of outdoor and print ads for Apple - some targeted to college campuses like the "Wall Plug" posters below, others to tech pubs like Wired, MacWorld and Popular Science.
I also got to work on the launches of iTunes and iMovie. The following spot, "Concert," was shot by Kinka Usher featuring a "Who's Who" of music stars. Chuck Berry disappeared mid-shoot and drove his rental car straight to Vegas. Lil' Kim and her posse made off with $10K worth of wardrobe. And Barry White refused to come out of his limo for 2 hours, then refused to say "It's your music, burn it on a Mac." So George Clinton piped up and said, "Fuck it, I'll say it on camera if you give me a laptop." Done. Magic.
Lastly, here are two pieces I did with AD Susan Alinsangan that Lee Clow pinned up in his office without telling us. I'll remember that forever:
