Hayden is one of the most important figures of the late twentieth century advertising, leading creative teams at both Chiat/Day and BBDO on the Apple Inc.'s Computer account.
In 1949, when Steve was two years old, his family relocated to San Jose, California, where his father was the first internist in the area and eventually ran the O'Connor Hospital there.
After honing his craft at a number of agencies on a variety of accounts, Steve was recruited to Chiat-Day where he and Lee Clow made advertising history as co-creators of the breakthrough 1984 Orwellian take-off campaign for Apple Inc.[2] In the late 1970s, when Chiat picked up the Apple account through the acquisition of Regis McKenna's advertising practice, computers were widely considered to be obscure and expensive machines for use by technical professionals and large organizations.
BBDO helped Apple become the #1 manufacturer of personal computers in the world, reclaiming the lead from IBM and Compaq in late 1992.
And Hayden contributed to award-winning work for such diverse clients as American Express, Kodak, Motorola, Dove, Cisco and SAP.