Jay Chiat

Jay Chiat
Jay Chiat
Born	Morton Jay Chiat; October 25, 1931; Chiat/Day advertising agency

Jay Chiat (October 25, 1931 – April 23, 2002) was an American advertising executive who started his career as a

copywriter

.

Biography

Chiat was born to a

Rutgers College, graduating in 1953 and was inducted in its Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2000. As an adult he shortened his legal name to Jay Chiat. He served in the United States Air Force

.

In 1968, Chiat teamed up with

Apple Computer 1984 campaign, the Energizer Bunny campaign, and the Nynex Yellow Pages campaign, were chosen by the trade publication Brandweek as three of the top 20 ad campaigns of the last 20 years. The "1984" Apple spot during Super Bowl XVIII is said by many to be the ad which marked the beginning of the commercials themselves being a Super Bowl event. Many of those who worked with Jay Chiat during this period are now leading practitioners in the industry. In 1999, Jay Chiat was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame, the industry's greatest honor.^[2]

In the mid-1990s, Chiat made one of the first large attempts to provide a virtual office environment for his employees. Variously received and reviewed, Chiat summed up his office experiment with, "The only thing I ever did in business that I was satisfied with."^[3]

He died of complications from

Advertising Age list of 100 people of the 20th century.^{[citation needed}

]