Steve Jobs is widely considered to be the best marketer/entrepreneur of the 21st century. When he returned to Apple in 1997 from his decade-long exile, he immediately reunited with Chiat/Day, the agency that brought us the world’s first viral advertisement “1984“. Together, they unleashed “Think Different,” a countercultural branding masterpiece that pushed a mind-set, not a product, and set up Apple as the endorser and enabler of misunderstood genius.

The video recording from an internal meeting Steve Jobs hosted on September 23rd, 1997 gives us some amazing insight into the creation of the greatest branding campaign ever made.

The greatest job of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike, and Nike sells a commodity… yet when you think of Nike you think of something different than a shoe company. You never see shoes in their advertisement. They honour great athletes and great athletics. That’s who they are, that’s what they are about.” – Steve Jobs

“To me marketing is about values. We’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. We have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.” – Steve Jobs

This is what Apple believed we should remember about them:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

A few of the print ads