Think different

Think Different was an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in the late 1990s by the Los Angeles office of advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. It was used in a famous television commercial, several print advertisements, and several television advertisements for Apple products. Apple's use of the slogan was discontinued with the start of the Apple Switch ad campaign in 2002. The slogan may have been a play on the venerable IBM Think motto coined by Thomas J. Watson.

Text

File:TexteditLeopard.jpg

The TextEdit icon from Mac OS X Leopard

The text used in the introductory "Think Different" commercial:

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
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.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some 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.

This text has recently resurfaced in Mac OS X Leopard on the high resolution icon for Text Edit.

Television commercials

Significantly shortened versions of the text were used in two television commercials titled "Crazy Ones" directed by Chiat/Day's Jennifer Golub with a voiceover narrated by Richard Dreyfuss.

The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past, including (in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso. The commercial ends with an image of a young girl, Shaan Sahota opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

The thirty-second commercial used many of the people above, but closed with Jerry Seinfeld, instead of the young girl. In order: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Martha Graham, Muhammad Ali, Alfred Hitchcock, Mahatma Gandhi, Jim Henson, Maria Callas, Picasso, and Jerry Seinfeld. This commercial aired only once, during the series finale of Seinfeld.

Print advertisements

Print advertisements from the campaign were published in many mainstream magazines such as Newsweek and Time. Sometimes these were traditional advertisements, prominently featuring the company's computers or consumer electronics along with the slogan. However, there was also another series of print ads which were more focused on brand image than specific products. They featured a portrait of one of the historic figures shown in the television ad, with a small Apple logo and the words "Think Different" in one corner, with no reference to the company's products.

Staff of Preparation

The campaign was made almost entirely in-house by the team at TBWA\Chiat\Day\Los Angeles:

Chairman and chief creative officer worldwide & account director: Lee Clow. Creative directors: Ken Segall, Rob Siltanen, Eric Grunbaum, Amy Moorman. Executive producer, director & art director: Jennifer Golub. Art directors: Jessica Schulman, Margaret Midgett, Ken Younglieb, Bob Kuperman, Yvonne Smith, Susan Alinsangan. Copywriter: Craig Tanimoto. Senior editor of the in-house arm, Venice Beach Editorial: Dan Bootzin. Stock photo and film research Susan Nickerson, owner and head stock-footage researcher, with Nickerson Research.

Apple.com Revivals

On three separate occasions, the Apple homepage featured images of notable figures not originally part of the campaign alongside the "Think Different" slogan:

In 2002, when Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize
In 2005, when Rosa Parks died
In 2007, when Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize

On another occasion, the Apple homepage featured an image of Al Gore, who was not originally part of the campaign with the text: "Al has put his life and soul, and much of his life during the past several years, into alerting and educating us all on the climate crisis. We are bursting with pride for Al and this historic recognition for his global contribution" when Al Gore won the Nobel Prize.

Parodies

The Think Different campaign was the subject of numerous satirical advertisements by culture jammer Ron English, in which the familiar phrase and logo were represented accompanied by pictures of Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, and Bill Gates.

At the end of Hunter Cressall's parody [1] the slogan "Crash Different" is displayed.

Wu-Tang Meets Indie Culture is an album from this series.

The most recent parody features the voiceover of the original commercial over a list of third-party iPhone applications. This video was released on YouTube shortly after the iPhone 1.1.1 update disabled all of the third-party apps. It meant to show that Apple was being hypocritical about their actions.

External links

The 60-sec. version of the television ad

Best quality version, requires 512kbps internet connection
on Youtube
.mov file, 3 MB
.mov file, 5 MB
.mov file, 10 MB (also here)
.mov file, 14 MB (note that this link downloaded a 3.3 MB file on 2007-3-7)

The 30-sec. version of the television ad

One-person versions of the television ad

mov file, 1 MB (mirror, on YouTube) Muhammad Ali
mov file, 1 MB Pablo Picasso (the footage is from the 1956 documentary "Le mystère Picasso" by Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Spoofs

.mov file, 6 MB (also here) Villains
.mov file, 3 MB Think Funny
.mov file, 4 MB Think Dharma
Think Different 2007 (YouTube) (a remake using contemporary media persona)
Think Different spoof regarding hackers of Apple's Iphone

Other ads with the "Think Different" slogan

Miscellaneous