Steve Hayden (copywriter) - From First Jobs To Steve Jobs (1969-1994)

From First Jobs To Steve Jobs (1969-1994)

Steve launched his career in Detroit as a copywriter on the General Motors corporate account. When he returned to California, he divided his attention between advertising and TV scriptwriting (for Welcome Back, Kotter), eventually focusing on advertising. After honing his craft at a number of agencies on a variety of accounts, Steve was recruited to Chiat-Day where he and Lee Clow made advertising history as co-creators of the breakthrough 1984 Orwellian take-off campaign for Apple Inc..

Hayden is one of the most important figures of the late twentieth century advertising, leading creative teams at both Chiat/Day and BBDO on the Apple Computer account. In the late 1970s, when Chiat picked up the Apple account through the acquisition of Regis McKenna's advertising practice, computers were widely considered to be obscure and expensive machines for use by technical professionals and large organizations. (Ken Olsen, the former CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation, is reputed to have said "What would anyone do with one?" when asked about the potential for home and personal computers.) Apple evangelized a very different world where personal computers would allow "ordinary people to do extraordinary things."

Apple, with its mythic origins in the garage and its charismatic entrepreneurial founders, captured the public imagination as few technology companies had ever done before, spending vast sums of money on advertising, events and promotions, and cheekily taking on industry leaders like IBM in championing a world of one person, one computer.

Under Hayden's leadership, Apple hired New York talk show personality Dick Cavett as a spokesman and put Apple commercials on mass-audience television programming.

In 1986, Steve moved to BBDO to become the Chairman/CEO of West Coast operations. Apple had fired Chiat/Day not long after Steve Jobs was tossed out after an attempt boardroom coup. Hayden said that the management team led by John Sculley "loved the advertising but hated the agency," and Sculley encouraged BBDO head Phil Dusenberry to hire Hayden away - which he did. The Hayden-led BBDO managed to hold on to the tempestuous Apple account for more than a decade, winning hundreds of awards for creative excellence and dozens more for effectiveness (including the Grand Effie for the launch of the Apple Powerbook.)

BBDO helped Apple become the #1 manufacturer of personal computers in the world, reclaiming the lead from IBM and Compaq in late 1992. The agency tripled in size during Hayden's tenure.