Steve Hayden
Steve Hayden | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 21, 1947 St. Charles, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | August 27, 2025 (aged 78) Patchogue, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Advertising executive |
Stephen Edward Hayden (May 21, 1947 – August 27, 2025) was an American advertising executive. He was the Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Worldwide. 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 Inc.'s Computer account.
Early life
Stephen Edward Hayden was born on May 21, 1947, in St. Charles, Missouri.[1] His father was an internist and his mother was an opera singer. He was the youngest of four sons. In 1949, when Steve was two years old, his family relocated to San Jose, California, where his father was the first internist in the area and eventually ran the O'Connor Hospital there. At 14, Steve was sent to boarding school at the Interlochen Center for the Arts where he studied cello (and where he served as chairman of the board of trustees).[2] After graduating from high school at Interlochen, he moved to Los Angeles to go to school at University of Southern California. He graduated in 1968 with a degree in English.
Career
Hayden 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 television 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.[3]
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.
Regis had hired talk show personality Dick Cavett as a spokesperson and Chiat/Day continued to employ him for about a year and a half in broader advertising on television.
in 1985, John Sculley l led an internal coup that ousted Steve Jobs as President of Apple, based on esoteric technical issues that Jobs had resisted. Concomitantly, Sculley ordered a review of Apple’s advertising agencies that resulted in the firing of Chiat/Day and the creative team of Hayden and Clow.
In 1986, after Sculley awarded the Apple account to BBDO, Hayden moved to BBDO to become the Chairman and CEO of West Coast operations. Apple had fired Chiat/Day because, as Sculley said, “We were concerned whether Chiat could handle our strategic complexity.” 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. BBDO added an experienced executive from Chiat, Gene Cameron as President/CEO and held onto 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.
In 1994, Hayden moved to Ogilvy to head the IBM account – which had moved to Ogilvy in the single largest account consolidation in advertising history.[4] Many pundits believed IBM was doomed and should be broken up and sold off – but then-CEO Lou Gerstner believed that IBM's greatest strength was as a whole. It was Ogilvy's job to give voice to a future-facing IBM and change the perception of a brand that was widely seen to be a dinosaur.
Eventually, the success on IBM propelled Ogilvy to a decade of growth and prosperity. And Hayden contributed to award-winning work for such diverse clients as American Express, Kodak, Motorola, Dove, Cisco and SAP.
Creative contributions
Hayden was the co-creator – along with Lee Clow – of Apple Inc.'s 1984 commercial that launched the Macintosh.
He also led the team that created and launched IBM's award-winning e-business campaign.[5]
He and his team at Ogilvy created the "Hello Moto" campaign for Motorola.
Death
Hayden died at a hospital in Patchogue, New York, on August 27, 2025, at the age of 78.[6][1]
References
- ^ a b Sandomir, Richard (September 4, 2025). "Steve Hayden, Writer Behind Apple's '1984' Commercial, Dies at 78". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
- ^ Interlochen Board of Trustees
- ^ Austerlitz, Saul (9 February 2024). "40 Years Ago, This Ad Changed the Super Bowl Forever". The New York Times.
- ^ Stevenson, Richard W. (9 August 1994). "Market Place; WPP Group is having a good year after some shaky ones". The New York Times.
- ^ 1999 Gold Effie Archived 2009-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Nudd, Tim (2025-08-28). "Steve Hayden, celebrated adman who wrote Apple's '1984,' dies at 78". AdAge. Retrieved 2025-09-05.
External links
- Ogilvy Worldwide biography
- CMO Magazine, Interview of Steve Hayden
- Hansen, Liane. "A Look Back at Apple's Super Ad: Landmark 1984 Spot Smashed 'Big Brother,' Launched the Mac." NPR, February 1, 2004. (Steve Hayden interview)