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Steve Jobs was not the mastermind behind 'Here's to the Crazy Ones,' says Rob Siltanen

Steve Jobs was not the mastermind behind 'Here's to the Crazy Ones,' says Rob Siltanen

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Rob Siltanen was in the room during the development of the "Think Different" campaign and claims that Steve Jobs was not the mastermind behind the narrative.

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Apple's "Think Different" ad campaign was recently resurrected as a somber requiem to Steve Jobs following his death in October. In particular, the 60-second Here's to the Crazy Ones spot narrated by Jobs himself took on the tone of a eulogy when viewed in retrospect, some 14 years after the original aired with a Richard Dreyfus voiceover. Walter Isaacson wrote about the evolution of the media blitz in his authorized biography Steve Jobs, attributing much of the celebrated Crazy Ones script to Jobs himself. However, that's not the truth according to Rob Siltanen's account in Forbes:

"How do I know what took place? I was there—right in the thick of it. I was the creative director and managing partner at TBWA/Chiat/Day working on the Apple pitch alongside CEO and Chief Creative Officer Lee Clow. Together, Lee and I headed up and actively participated in all of the work done for the pitch. I was also in every agency meeting with Jobs throughout the process — pre-pitch, pitch and post-pitch."

As he was apt to do, Steve Jobs initially called the Crazy Ones script "shit," according to Siltanen. He goes on to say that Jobs was "blatantly harsh on the commercial" and "far from the mastermind" of the piece that would introduce the hallowed "Think Different" ad campaign to the world and help orchestrate one of the most incredible corporate — and personal — comebacks in history.