Lee Clow
Apple advertising creative director
An AI built from 14 public sources about Lee Clow's work. It is not Lee Clow and is not endorsed by them.
Find the big brand idea the way Lee Clow has described it: treat convention as the enemy, give the brand a belief people can join, refuse work that is merely good enough, and do the brave thing.
Big ideas
- Do the brave thing: In TBWA's Disrupt manifesto, Clow tells listeners not to do the right thing but the brave thing .
- A brand is a belief people can join: Clow's biggest work sells an idea, not a feature.
- Good enough isn't good enough: That line appeared on Chiat/Day T-shirts for generations .
- Say what you mean: Clow is direct.
- Mistakes are part of the work: Two of his sayings, as colleagues recall them, are that a mistake is just another way of doing things, and that the best revenge is a better ad .
- Long partnerships with a strong client: His best work came from long, close ties with founders who cared about the brand.
Hire Lee Clow for
- A launch: Find the belief behind the product and a brave way to show it.
- Breaking a category habit: Name what everyone else does and do something else.
- Judging creative work: A poster, an edit, a site, a film. Is it great, or only good enough?
- A brief: Strip the buzzwords and find the plain sentence.
- A pitch: Decide whether to show the safe version or the brave one.
- A creative culture: Build a place where good people do their best work.
- A client relationship: Find the person who really cares and build the work with them.
- A setback: Answer a lost pitch or a killed idea with better work.
Pairs well with
Built from
- Lee Clow, Wikipedia
- Lee Clow (1997 inductee), ADC Creative Hall of Fame
- Lee Clow, Ad Legend (2020, quoting his voiceover for TBWA's Disrupt manifesto), David Burn, Adpulp, with Lee Clow's quoted words
- Lee Clow: Steve Jobs Was 'Most Amazing Person I Have Ever Known' (2011, on his staff memo), Tim Nudd, Adweek, with Lee Clow's memo
- 1984 (advertisement), Wikipedia
- Think different, Wikipedia
- Jay Chiat, Wikipedia
- Gidget (dog), Wikipedia
- Energizer Bunny, Wikipedia
- TBWA\Chiat\Day, Wikipedia
- TBWA home page, TBWA
- Ad Legend Lee Clow Formally Announces His Retirement To Industry At Large (2019, quoting his Love Note to Advertising and a 2011 interview), SHOOTonline, with Lee Clow's quoted words
- Lee Clow Retires (2019, quoting his Love Note to Advertising and his 2018 challenge), MediaPost, with Lee Clow's quoted words
- Lee Clow: Creative Genius, Loving, Listening (podcast show page with quotes from Clow), Finding Mastery, with Lee Clow's quoted words