Our “Agency of the Year” coverage in this issue features the observations of several key players at TBWAChiatDay and TBWAMedia Arts Lab, none more key than Lee Clow, global director, Media Arts TBWA Worldwide, and chairman of TBWAMedia Arts Lab.
An icon in his own right, Clow offered reflections on another icon, the late Steve Jobs with whom he made advertising/marketing history.
After a first go-around which yielded the classic Apple “1984,” the commercial that put the Super Bowl on its path to becoming an advertising event, Jobs returned in 1997 to the company that had ousted him. He immediately sought out Clow.
“I remember Steve telling me that Apple was in big trouble and he wanted to save it,” related Clow. “We were in a fire drill mode and the “Think Different” campaign and the “Crazy Ones” commercial were part of the reassertion that Apple was going to find its soul again. Steve was speaking to the public but also to Apple itself and the software developers. He didn’t have any new computers or product to point to yet. So he pointed to what made Apple great. ‘Think Different’ was a promise that Apple would get back to its values and what he and Apple’s customers believed in. Less than a year later, the iMac was unveiled and the turnaround of the company was underway.”
A few years later “Think Different” is what Clow, Jobs and their colleagues applied to the agency itself handling Apple.
From that thinking came the formation of TBWAMedia Arts Lab, a separate unit dedicated to Apple.
“We built this unit for a perfectionist communications genius,” said Clow in reference to Jobs. “We built it to give Steve the security and consistency of talent he demanded.”
Clow explained that security was very much “needed because there was stuff on the office walls that needed to be kept under wraps, new Apple innovations. Security on our shoots and at the Media Arts Lab offices is tight–that’s not paranoia. It was part of Steve’s communications strategy. He was P.T. Barnum who at the right moment would say, ‘Ta-dah, look what we just did.’ We worked in a unique way for a unique guy.
“Steve came to every marketing meeting every week,” continued Clow. Here’s the chief executive making that commitment when for other clients you often don’t have ad managers who show up for each week’s marketing meeting. We built Media Arts Lab totally around the dedication of our people to the things that Steve wanted us to deliver.”
Clow observed that Jobs “understood early on that everything a brand does is advertising. The ad agency has to be the keeper of the flame–one who understands the core belief and soul of the brand and to make sure everything the brand does and says stays true to that emotional center…We are in charge of finding the soul and center of a brand and trying to tell stories that reflect that core, that do in fact resonate in the culture and give people something to tweet about, talk about and relate to in some meaningful way. The center of it is that a brand has to have some kind of passion, a soul.”
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More