• Forbes, Thursday, December 15, 2011 2:48 PM

Herein, Rob Siltanen, chairman and chief creative officer at Siltanen & Partners talks about the origins of Apple's “Think Different” ad campaign and the “To the crazy ones” commercial that launched it.

"I was there—right in the thick of it," he writes. Siltanen was 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 [Steve] Jobs throughout the process — pre-pitch, pitch and post-pitch."

At the link is a story drawn from handwritten, dated creative journals Siltanen says chronicle his agency career and his 1997 work at Apple. "In these journals are countless pages of notes and concepts I jotted down during the process of trying to bring Apple back to prominence. I also found the original 'To the crazy ones' television script I presented to Jobs, as well as a plethora of rough drafts."

Read the whole story at Forbes »