Think Different
Encyclopedia
"Think Different" is an advertising slogan
created for Apple Computer
in 1997 by the Los Angeles
office of advertising agency
TBWA\Chiat\Day.
It was used in a television commercial, several print advertisements and a number of TV promos for Apple products. Apple's use of the slogan was discontinued with the start of the Apple Switch ad campaign
in 2002. The slogan appeared to have been a play on the venerable IBM "Think" motto coined by Thomas J. Watson
, with IBM
having been a direct competitor of Apple in the PC
market. More explicitly, the Apple slogan served to challenge consumers who were wanting to buy IBM-derived
Windows
-based PCs to consider Apple as a smart alternative.
. An unaired version featured the voice of Steve Jobs
.
The words "think different" were created by Chiat/Day art director Craig Tanimoto. The text of the various versions of this commercial was written by Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall.
The one-minute commercial featured black-and-white footage of 17 iconic 20th century personalities. In order of appearance they were: Albert Einstein
, Bob Dylan
, Martin Luther King, Jr.
, Richard Branson
, John Lennon
(with Yoko Ono
), 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 (identified as Shaan Sahota, Singh's niece) opening her closed eyes, as if making a wish. The final clip is taken from the All Around The World version of the "Sweet Lullaby
" music video, directed by Tarsem Singh
.
The thirty-second commercial was a shorter version of the previous one, using 11 of the 17 personalities, but closed with Jerry Seinfeld
, instead of the young girl. In order of appearance: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Martha Graham, Muhammad Ali, Alfred Hitchcock, Mahatma Gandhi, Jim Henson, Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso, followed by Jerry Seinfeld. This version aired only once, during the series finale
of Seinfeld
.
Another early example of the "Think Different" ads was on February 4, 1998, months before taking the colors out of the logo, where a commercial aired with a snail
carrying an Intel Pentium II
chip on its back moving slowly, as the Power Macintosh G3
claims that it is twice as fast as Intel's Pentium II Processor.
and Time
. Their style was predominantly traditional, prominently featuring the company's computers or consumer electronics along with the slogan.
There was also another series of print ads which were more focused on brand image than specific products. Those featured a portrait of one historic figure, with a small Apple logo and the words "Think Different" in one corner, with no reference to the company's products. The familiar faces on display included Jim Henson
, Richard Feynman
, Maria Callas
, Miles Davis
, Martha Graham
, Ansel Adams
, Cesar Chavez
, Joan Baez
, and others.
There were at least 29 different Think Different posters created.
The sets were as follows:
Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Set 4
Set 5 (The Directors set, Never Officially Released)
The familiar faces on display also included Buzz Aldrin, Rosa Parks, Flik the Ant and others.
In addition, around the year 2000, Apple produced the ten, 11x17 poster set often referred to as "The Educators Set", which was distributed through their Education Channels. Apple sent out boxes(the cover of which is a copy of the 'Crazy Ones' original TD poster) that each contained 3 packs(sealed in plastic) of 10 small/miniature Think Different posters.
Educator Set
The original "Long version" appeared on posters made by Apple.
The Crazy Ones
Original:
Full version:
Short version:
In many ways, the new ad campaign would mark the beginning of Apple's re-emergence as technical giant. In the years leading up to the ad, Apple had seen many of even its most staunch supporters switch over to other competitors in the market offering more sophisticated and better equipped processors. Even worse, the company had lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to the failure of Apple Newton
, a billion-dollar project that proved to be critically, and commercially, unsuccessful. Appealing to the "counter-culture" image Apple had gained in its earlier years, the "Think Different" campaign, along with the return of Steve Jobs
, put a bright spotlight on the company and consequently on many of the new products that were being announced, chief among them the immensely successful iMac
personal computer and later the Mac OS X
operating system.
Macintosh
Think different.
In previous Macintosh packaging, Apple's website URL was printed below the specifications list.
One possible explanation for this inconspicuous usage is to maintain Apple's trademark
s on both terms – a company must show continued use of a trademark on its products in order to keep it, but neither trademark is widely used in the company's current marketing (with regards to "Macintosh", Apple's computers are now usually marketed as simply "Mac").
Truncated versions of the "Crazy Ones" text have been reused in Mac OS X on the high-resolution icon for TextEdit
introduced in Leopard, and on the "All My Files" Finder icon introduced in Lion
.
, the iPhone 4S
; features built-in voice recognition software called "Siri
". Built into Siri is a series of easter eggs, one of them include the question "What do you think about ...?", to which Siri replies: "I think differently."
, Adolf Hitler
, and Bill Gates
.
In October 2011, after the death of Steve Jobs, the Dutch television program De Wereld Draait Door
translated the clip into Dutch. During one week, they made a selection of seventeen influential Dutch people and made the Dutch version with the same translated voice-over text but with different people. These people were: Hendrik Lorentz
, Van Kooten en De Bie
, Pim Fortuyn
, Ramses Shaffy
, Albert Heyn, Jan Cremer, Freek de Jonge
, Johan Cruyff
, Joop van den Ende
, Annie M.G. Schmidt, Bishop Bekkers, Queen Wilhelmina
, Albert Mol
, Theo van Gogh
, Willem Kolff, Wim T. Schippers
, Karel Appel
.
The Simpsons
episode "Mypods and Boomsticks
" pokes fun at the slogan, writing it "Think Differently", because the slogan itself is not entirely grammatically correct.
For Steam's release on Mac OS X, Valve has released a Left 4 Dead
–themed advertisement featuring Francis, whose in-game spoken lines involve him hating various things. The given slogan is "I hate different." Subsequently, for Team Fortress 2
s release on Mac, a trailer was released which concludes with "Think bullets".
Advertising slogan
Advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. A strapline is a British term used as a secondary sentence attached to a brand name...
created for Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
in 1997 by the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
office of advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
TBWA\Chiat\Day.
It was used in a television commercial, several print advertisements and a number of TV promos for Apple products. Apple's use of the slogan was discontinued with the start of the Apple Switch ad campaign
Apple Switch ad campaign
Switch was an advertising campaign launched by Apple Computer on June 10, 2002. It featured what the company referred to as "real people" who had "switched" from the Microsoft Windows platform to the Mac. An international television and print ad campaign directed users to a website where various...
in 2002. The slogan appeared to have been a play on the venerable IBM "Think" motto coined by Thomas J. Watson
Thomas J. Watson
Thomas John Watson, Sr. was president of International Business Machines , who oversaw that company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956...
, with IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
having been a direct competitor of Apple in the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
market. More explicitly, the Apple slogan served to challenge consumers who were wanting to buy IBM-derived
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-based PCs to consider Apple as a smart alternative.
Television commercials
Significantly shortened versions of the text were used in two television commercials, known as "Crazy Ones", directed by Chiat/Day's Jennifer Golub who also shared the art director credit with Jessica Schulman and Yvonne Smith. The voiceover was by Richard DreyfussRichard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
. An unaired version featured the voice of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
.
The words "think different" were created by Chiat/Day art director Craig Tanimoto. The text of the various versions of this commercial was written by Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall.
The one-minute commercial featured black-and-white footage of 17 iconic 20th century personalities. In order of appearance they were: Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
(with Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
), Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
, Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
, Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
, Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
, Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
, Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
(with Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955. He is the protagonist of many Muppet projects, most notably as the host of The Muppet Show, and has appeared in various sketches on Sesame Street, in commercials and in public service announcements over...
), Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
. The commercial ends with an image of a young girl (identified as Shaan Sahota, Singh's niece) opening her closed eyes, as if making a wish. The final clip is taken from the All Around The World version of the "Sweet Lullaby
Sweet Lullaby
"Sweet Lullaby" is a world music/ethnic electronica song by Deep Forest which originally appeared on their eponymous album. The song gained popularity in 1992 and 1993 where it was released as a single, becoming a top 30 hit in many European and Oceanian countries...
" music video, directed by Tarsem Singh
Tarsem Singh
Tarsem Dhandwar Singh , known professionally as Tarsem, is an Indian director who has worked on films, music videos, and commercials.- Life and career :...
.
The thirty-second commercial was a shorter version of the previous one, using 11 of the 17 personalities, but closed with Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
, instead of the young girl. In order of appearance: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Martha Graham, Muhammad Ali, Alfred Hitchcock, Mahatma Gandhi, Jim Henson, Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso, followed by Jerry Seinfeld. This version aired only once, during the series finale
The Finale (Seinfeld episode)
"The Finale" is the name given to the final two episodes of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. They were the 179th and 180th episodes of the show and the 23rd and 24th episodes of the ninth season. It aired on May 14, 1998 to an audience of 76 million viewers...
of Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
Another early example of the "Think Different" ads was on February 4, 1998, months before taking the colors out of the logo, where a commercial aired with a snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
carrying an Intel Pentium II
Pentium II
The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors, the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million...
chip on its back moving slowly, as the Power Macintosh G3
Power Macintosh G3
The Power Macintosh G3, commonly called "beige G3s" or "platinum G3s" for the color of their cases, was a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from November 1997 to January 1999...
claims that it is twice as fast as Intel's Pentium II Processor.
Print advertisements
Print advertisements from the campaign were published in many mainstream magazines such as NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. Their style was predominantly traditional, prominently featuring the company's computers or consumer electronics along with the slogan.
There was also another series of print ads which were more focused on brand image than specific products. Those featured a portrait of one historic figure, with a small Apple logo and the words "Think Different" in one corner, with no reference to the company's products. The familiar faces on display included Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
, Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
, Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
, Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, Cesar Chavez
César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, and others.
Promotional Posters
Promotional Posters from the campaign were produced in small numbers in 24 x 36 inch sizes. They featured the portrait of one historic figure, with a small Apple logo and the words "Think Different" in one corner. The posters were produced between 1997 and 1998.There were at least 29 different Think Different posters created.
The sets were as follows:
Set 1
- Amelia EarhartAmelia EarhartAmelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
- Alfred HitchcockAlfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
- Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
- Mahatma GandhiMahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
- Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
Set 2
- Maria CallasMaria CallasMaria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
- Martha GrahamMartha GrahamMartha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
- Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
- Ted TurnerTed TurnerRobert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
- 14th Dalai Lama14th Dalai LamaThe 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
(Never officially released due to licensing issues and the politically sensitive nature)
Set 3
- Jim HensonJim HensonJames Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
- Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
- Ansel AdamsAnsel AdamsAnsel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
- Lucille Ball Lucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
& Desi ArnazDesi ArnazDesi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to... - Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
(Never officially released due to licensing issues)
Set 4
- Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
- Richard FeynmanRichard FeynmanRichard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
- Jackie RobinsonJackie RobinsonJack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
- Cesar ChavezCésar ChávezCésar Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
Set 5 (The Directors set, Never Officially Released)
- Charlie ChaplinCharlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
- Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
- Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
- Frank CapraFrank CapraFrank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
- John HustonJohn HustonJohn Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
The familiar faces on display also included Buzz Aldrin, Rosa Parks, Flik the Ant and others.
In addition, around the year 2000, Apple produced the ten, 11x17 poster set often referred to as "The Educators Set", which was distributed through their Education Channels. Apple sent out boxes(the cover of which is a copy of the 'Crazy Ones' original TD poster) that each contained 3 packs(sealed in plastic) of 10 small/miniature Think Different posters.
Educator Set
- Albert Einstein
- Amelia Earhart
- Miles Davis
- Jim Henson
- Jane GoodallJane GoodallDame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
- Mahatma Gandhi
- John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
& Yoko OnoYoko Onois a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon... - Cesar Chavez
- James Watson
- Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
Text
Original Version:The original "Long version" appeared on posters made by Apple.
The Crazy Ones
Original:
Full version:
Short version:
Reception and influence
Upon release, the "Think Different" Campaign proved to be an enormous success for Apple and TBWA\Chiat\Day. Critically acclaimed, the spot would garner numerous awards and accolades, including the 1998 Emmy Award for Best Commercial and the 2000 Grand Effie Award for most effective campaign in America.In many ways, the new ad campaign would mark the beginning of Apple's re-emergence as technical giant. In the years leading up to the ad, Apple had seen many of even its most staunch supporters switch over to other competitors in the market offering more sophisticated and better equipped processors. Even worse, the company had lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to the failure of Apple Newton
Apple Newton
The MessagePad was the first series of personal digital assistant devices developed by Apple for the Newton platform in 1993. Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was done in Japan by the Sharp Corporation...
, a billion-dollar project that proved to be critically, and commercially, unsuccessful. Appealing to the "counter-culture" image Apple had gained in its earlier years, the "Think Different" campaign, along with the return of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, put a bright spotlight on the company and consequently on many of the new products that were being announced, chief among them the immensely successful iMac
IMac
The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers built by Apple. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through five distinct forms....
personal computer and later the Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
operating system.
Product packaging
Since late 2009, the box packaging specification sheet for iMac computers has included the following footnote:Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
Think different.
In previous Macintosh packaging, Apple's website URL was printed below the specifications list.
One possible explanation for this inconspicuous usage is to maintain Apple's trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
s on both terms – a company must show continued use of a trademark on its products in order to keep it, but neither trademark is widely used in the company's current marketing (with regards to "Macintosh", Apple's computers are now usually marketed as simply "Mac").
Mac OS X
TextEdit
TextEdit is a simple, open source word processor and text editor, first featured in NeXT's NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. It is now distributed with Mac OS X since Apple Inc.'s acquisition of NeXT, and available as a GNUstep application for other Unix-compatible operating systems such as Linux...
introduced in Leopard, and on the "All My Files" Finder icon introduced in Lion
Mac OS X Lion
Mac OS X Lion is the eighth and current major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers....
.
Apple.com
On at least five separate occasions, the Apple homepage featured images of notable figures not originally part of the campaign alongside the "Think Different" slogan:- In 2001, when George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
died - In 2002, when Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
won the Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who... - In 2003, when Gregory HinesGregory HinesGregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
died - In 2005, when Rosa ParksRosa ParksRosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
died - In 2007, when Al GoreAl GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
received the Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
Siri
Apple's latest iPhoneIPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, the iPhone 4S
IPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S is a touchscreen slate smartphone developed by Apple Inc. It is the fifth generation of the iPhone, a device that combines a widescreen iPod with a touchscreen, mobile phone, and internet communicator. It retains the exterior design of its predecessor, iPhone 4, but is host to a range...
; features built-in voice recognition software called "Siri
Siri
Siri or SIRI may refer to:Given name* Sigrid, a female name commonly shortened as Siri* Siri, a common Hindu female name, meaning "Goddess Lakshmi, Wealth, God's gift of love."* Siri von Essen, Swedish actress married to writer August Strindberg...
". Built into Siri is a series of easter eggs, one of them include the question "What do you think about ...?", to which Siri replies: "I think differently."
Grammar
"Think Different" has been criticized as a slogan for being grammatically incorrect. "Think" is a verb and should take the adverb, "differently", not the adjective, "different". On the other hand, in certain colloquial expressions such as "think big", this rule can be violated for effect. Furthermore, the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary cites use of "different" as an adverb dating back to 1744. Also, with "different" as a noun, the phrase "Think Different" refers to what to think as opposed to how to think. This is similar to the difference between "Do Good" and "Do Well," where "Do Good" refers to performing good deeds such as being kind to others, and "Do Well" means to perform an action successfully, such as earning a high score on an exam.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 MansonCharles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, and Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
.
In October 2011, after the death of Steve Jobs, the Dutch television program De Wereld Draait Door
De Wereld Draait Door
De Wereld Draait Door is a Dutch television program produced by the VARA and broadcast on Nederland 3. The host is Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. The program contains a mixture of news, information, and amusement....
translated the clip into Dutch. During one week, they made a selection of seventeen influential Dutch people and made the Dutch version with the same translated voice-over text but with different people. These people were: Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect...
, Van Kooten en De Bie
Van Kooten en de Bie
Van Kooten en De Bie were a Dutch comedy duo formed by Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie.The two cooperated for years, before they started to work for the public broadcasting organization VPRO, where they first performed for radio broadcasting, and later took to making shows for television...
, Pim Fortuyn
Pim Fortuyn
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List ....
, Ramses Shaffy
Ramses Shaffy
Ramses Shaffy was a Dutch singer and actor. He became popular during the 1960s. His most famous songs include Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder , We zullen doorgaan , Pastorale, Sammy and Laat me...
, Albert Heyn, Jan Cremer, Freek de Jonge
Freek de Jonge
Frederik "Freek" Jan Georg de Jonge is a Dutch cabaret performer, singer, comedian and blogger.-Early life and career:...
, Johan Cruyff
Johan Cruyff
Hendrik Johannes Cruijff OON , known as Johan Cruyff, is a retired Dutch footballer and is currently the manager of the Catalan national team as well as a member of the AFC Ajax board of directors. He won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974, which is a record jointly held with...
, Joop van den Ende
Joop van den Ende
Johannes "Joop" Adrianus van den Ende is a Dutch media tycoon, theatrical producer, co-founder of Endemol and founder/owner of Stage Entertainment....
, Annie M.G. Schmidt, Bishop Bekkers, Queen Wilhelmina
Queen Wilhelmina
Queen Wilhelmina may refer to:*Wilhelmine of Prussia , Queen consort of the Netherlands 1815–1837*Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands 1890–1948...
, Albert Mol
Albert Mol
Albert Mol was a popular Dutch author, actor and TV personality, who appeared in movies and TV shows in a career that spanned nearly 60 years....
, Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh is the name of:*Theo van Gogh , brother of the painter Vincent van Gogh*Theo van Gogh , great-grandson of the above...
, Willem Kolff, Wim T. Schippers
Wim T. Schippers
Wim T. Schippers is a Dutch artist, comedian and voice actor, loosely related to the international Fluxus-movement....
, Karel Appel
Karel Appel
Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s...
.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Mypods and Boomsticks
Mypods and Boomsticks
"Mypods and Boomsticks" is the seventh episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons and first aired on Fox, November 30, 2008. Homer becomes suspicious of Bart's new Muslim friend, Bashir, and decides to invite his family for dinner; having offended them, Homer goes to their home to apologize...
" pokes fun at the slogan, writing it "Think Differently", because the slogan itself is not entirely grammatically correct.
For Steam's release on Mac OS X, Valve has released a Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...
–themed advertisement featuring Francis, whose in-game spoken lines involve him hating various things. The given slogan is "I hate different." Subsequently, for Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
s release on Mac, a trailer was released which concludes with "Think bullets".
External links
- Apple: Think Different text at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- Detailed information at The Inspiration Room Daily
- Variety article