There's a great article in The Guardian about how Steve Jobs prepares for a major presentation. Like at MacWorld when an audience of crazed MacFreaks will go nuts even if Steve commands them to disembowl themselves. I know, 'cos I've been there when I worked on Apple in the early eighties (anyone old enough to remember the Lisa?) Many is the time when I've seen Steve in a rage for no apparent reason other than he can sometimes be the meanest guy on the face of the planet, then the next minute be your best friend. But, one thing I will stress. He always wanted, and always supported, great advertising. In fact, he himself put it best... "I want insanely great advertising." A lot of clients say that, but don't have the cojones to see it through. Steve does. The only other one I ever worked for like that was Joe Naachio, ex CEO of Qwest. You can see the results on my Web site. Unfortunately, Joe is now facing major jail time for insider trading. Ah well, nothing lasts!
This is Steve stealing your brain. Relax, resistance is futile!
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I have heard similar stories about Jobs and his quest for excellence in their image and advertising, including one about their famous 1984 commercial.
Know More Media supports Unitus, a non-profit that alleviates poverty through microfinance. I am on their board. The chairman of Unitus is Mike Murray, who was the Marketing Manager for Apple's Macintosh and was involved in the 1984 commercial that has hailed by some as the greatest commercial of the last century. I wrote some about it here and have a link to the full commercial there.
Posted by: Tim Stay | January 7, 2006 4:10 PM | Permalink to Comment