Michael Pitzer (Art & Design)

Technology Experience

B2B & B2C Advertising/Branding

A few years before, and during the dot com bubble, I had the opportunity to work on several categories of technology. Deep tech to tech-sumer, software to hardware to services, UNIX to Apple, each was very challenging and yet creatively rewarding. Many of the companies have since been absorbed by others. A few never made it past secondary funding. And several imploaded from their inability to adjust to a changing marketplace -- like 8-track to cassette to CD to mp3, the world changed so fast, their product offerings were no longer relevant.

"Things", like the times, change. For people in advertising that can't except the fundamental principle that we eat our young and destroy our old, you'll sadly become one of those who tells others how you once had a personal secretary, window office, reserved parking spot, six-figure salary and 20% bonus along with 2-hour lunches and free cocaine at vendor parties. Those days are gone. They're never coming back... well, maybe in another Netflix series.

  • Various
  • BBDO/San Francisco
  • Hakuhodo/Los Angeles
  • Bozell Worldwide/Los Angeles
  • Bozell Worldwide/Silicon Valley
  • J. Walter Thompson Technology
  • The Design Factory West/Sacramento
  • Freelance
  • ECD, CD, AD, CW, Designer
  • 1985 - 2010
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Consumer Print
Apple Computers
Great ads are timeless...

In 1984, I was a Sr. Art Director at BBDO San Francisco working on the Higher Eduction portion of Apple Computers. Back then, consumers read "long-copy" ads and creative teams busted their humps to make each ad as inviting to read as creatively possible. I love this ad for the photography. Every shot was an original — nothing stock. The headline, beautifully written, perfectly positioning the product. The body copy was crafted and re-crafted to flow and color the spread. But most of all, I helped create this ad at a time when art direction and concepts mattered.

Plus, back then, few people knew what a computer was and how they'd be used to change the world. And I was right there.

  • Apple Computers
  • Technology
  • Art Direction
  • BBDO San Francisco