When Mr. Clow, along with Steve Hayden and Brent Thomas, presented the idea for what would become “1984,” Jobs loved it. And at first so did John Sculley, Apple’s CEO for a decade beginning in 1983. But when the board saw the bleak but powerful ad that depicted a dystopian future, it balked and Mr. Sculley turned tail. He asked Chiat/Day to sell off the two Super Bowl slots it had purchased for the ad, one a thirty-second, the other a sixty. The move angered both Mr. Jobs and Mr. Wozniak. They thought about buying the ad time with their own money, but they didn’t have to. It turned out Chiat/Day only sold the shorter of the slots. Mr. Isaascson quotes Mr. Clow as saying: “We told them that we couldn’t sell the sixty-second spot, though in truth we didn’t try.
Book: Jobs Was a Student of Advertising | Agency News - Advertising Age
I haven’t gotten to this part in the book yet, but it looks awesome. Also, check out Jon Steele’s Truth, Lies and Advertising. He pitched the Apple business and his tale of the process is riveting.
