CHAPTER 15LEE CLOW
ON THE POWER OF GREAT ADVERTISING
Lee Clow is the quintessential advertising man. For nearly five decades he has been the creative head of the leading agency in California. And he has been at the origin point of a great many iconic campaigns for brands such as Pedigree, Adidas, Nissan, Visa, and Apple. The spot used for the 1984 launch of the Macintosh has been celebrated by the advertising industry as the most admired commercial of the last century. And the series of 66 “Mac versus PC” commercials was named as the best campaign of the first decade of this century.1
It was Clow who also conceived the famous film signed “Think Different,” which was dedicated to the “crazy ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world.”2 The film is full of trailblazers including Einstein, Gandhi, Picasso, Martin Luther King Jr., and others. As Steve Jobs explained on his return to the company, this commercial made it clear to investors, observers, and employees that there was absolutely no way his company was going out of business.
Lee Clow was Steve Jobs’s advertising partner since the very first days of Apple. In referring to him, Jobs once said, “He’s the best guy in advertising.”3 For most people in our industry, Lee is a living legend and a guiding force.
Clow loves ideas in all shapes and forms, ideas that change the way advertising works, ideas that redefine creativity. He believes ideas accelerate change; they rule the world.
Big Brand Ideas
When it ...
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