Cupertino, CA.
1997

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. 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. But 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.

“Just to give you an idea of what it was like to work with Steve Jobs, just imagine you’re in this lonely, empty auditorium, his just finished that reading, and the words are just ringing in the air, and then there was a great pause, and he said: ‘That’s it; I’m out of here. This is a horrible idea,’ and he stormed off.”

Ken Segall
Creative Director
Chiat/Day

 

The above TV spot was the capstone for Apple’s award winning “Think Different” campaign. Ken Segall is a brilliant Creative Director and that’s a fact. However, what is un-factual is that Steve Jobs thought this was a horrible idea. Steve had said many times that those words gave him goose pumps. He just thought that it would be horrible if he were to say them, and he, as usual, was correct.

Jobs had just returned to Apple after a 12-year forced absence. The company was in disarray; their stock was in the toilet; and they hadn’t launched any noteworthy products since he had left. It would be over a year until they would. Steve knew that if he performed that spot himself, the tech world would view him as nothing but an obnoxious braggart. Steve’s solution, “Call Robin Williams. He’s a personal friend and he’ll do it for us.”  Well, Mr. Williams refused. It seems that he felt the way most A-list celebrities and actors did at the time—that commercial work was too demeaning (after all this was 1997).

I don’t know if Mr. Williams ever read the script, but when Richard Dreyfuss read it he immediately agreed to do it. Dreyfuss saw right away the poetic and heartfelt simplicity of it and his performance was nothing less than stellar. It’s one of the first examples of an A-list celebrity doing a voice over for an ad that was not a personal endorsement. It opened the floodgate of A-list actors coming onto the scene, and gave them the opportunity to move into an entirely new space. By 2002, a host of actors and actresses would become fully immersed in the voice over world.

Actors and those with an acting skillset have the ability to bring a subdued passion and thoughtfulness to the “Conversational Read.” They know how to communicate on a level that the consumer isn’t overly familiar with. Through the years, Conversational Voice Acting has become a heightened art form, and numerous actors now vie for commercial jobs.

After Steve’s death in 2011, his recording of “The Crazy Ones” was released and more than a few of my contemporaries believe it’s better than Dreyfuss’s. Hindsight being 20-20, they do have a point. Here’s a link to both spots so you can decide for yourself:

Richard Dreyfuss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFEarBzelBs
Steve Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA

If you ask me, I think Steve was right. A professional voice actor is always the way to go. At the end of the day, this doesn’t mean that only A-list actors can secure the most coveted voice over roles. There is plenty of work to go around, and more opportunities than ever to use your talent.

We’ll discuss this and more in part three.