
The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign - username3
http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/12/14/the-real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign/
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martinkallstrom
There is an amazing, astounding paragraph in this article. Picture the scene.
Steve Jobs looks at the pitch, and is actually, viscerally grabbed by fear.
The fear that all of us experience once in a while when we realize there is a
big opportunity ahead, but one that we need to jump off the cliff to grab. And
he realizes the fear has grabbed him, and he pushes it away. "What am I
doing?" he asks himself. "Screw it. It’s the right thing." And he jumps off
the cliff, taking one great leap towards saving Apple.

Here's the paragraph in full:

"Jobs was quiet during the pitch, but he seemed intrigued throughout, and now
it was time for him to talk. He looked around the room filled with the “Think
Different” billboards and said, “This is great, this is really great … but I
can’t do this. People already think I’m an egotist, and putting the Apple logo
up there with all these geniuses will get me skewered by the press.” The room
was totally silent. The “Think Different” campaign was the only campaign we
had in our bag of tricks, and I thought for certain we were toast. Steve then
paused and looked around the room and said out loud, yet almost as if to his
own self, “What am I doing? Screw it. It’s the right thing. It’s great. Let’s
talk tomorrow.” In a matter of seconds, right before our very eyes, he had
done a complete about-face."

~~~
ghshephard
One of the elements that made the TV ad so effective (and is common today with
premier brands such as Nike) - was that the actual Apple Logo only appeared
for a few brief seconds at the very end of the commercial.

It's a fine line between setting the mood, and not being crass - (for the
opposite, see "GoDaddy") but hopefully not being so subtle nobody can figure
out what the ad was for.

~~~
wycats
There is a chipotle ad playing in the movies to the tune of "back to the
start" that has a similar effect.

The first time I saw it, I was blown away by the Chipotle logo in the closing
seconds.

~~~
alanfalcon
Yes, it's a very effective ad. I spent every moment after the first five
seconds trying to figure out what it was an ad for, and in that last logo
reveal it all made perfect sense.

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acqq
The final Apple TV version:

"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. While some may 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."

The version for which Jobs said "It sucks! I hate it! It's advertising agency
shit!":

"To the crazy ones. Here's to the misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
Here's to the ones who see the world differently. They're the ones who invent
and imagine and create. They're the ones who push the human race forward.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people
who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are the ones who
actually do."

The devil is in the details. I'd be also very unsatisfied with the line:
"They're the ones who invent and imagine and create." Like a kid writing.

Also note that Jobs practically selected the whole concept, before, "on the
spot" even if he expressed doubts -- most people would "sleep over it" or
whatever -- he decided immediately. Really to be respected.

~~~
jaredmck
Every edit there blows away the original. Perfect example of the power and
value of precise, exhaustive editing.

I think the turns of rhetorical device are most notable: why would the
original not start with "here's to"?! You don't just rip into a toast mid-
paragraph. The pacing and repetition in the first draft had no logic behind
the choices, while the final piece is pitch perfect on several levels.
Editing!

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richardburton
I wish that the Isaacson's biography of Jobs had contained this level of
detail. I just love reading about how all the different threads of the story
came together to produce the Think Different commercial. I often found the
biography to be brief on detail and too verbose when it came to repeating
Jobs's flaws. Overall the book was inspiring but I felt it was despite, not
because of, Isaacson's writing.

~~~
el_chapitan
Given the length of this piece on just a small part of the book, I think you'd
end up with encyclopedic tomes about Steve Jobs + Apple. This may not be a bad
thing, but it would be a huge thing.

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staunch
Seems that the biggest contributor to the Think Different concept was whoever
created Nike's athlete ads. Think Different follows essentially the same
style/format but instead starring athletes it stars historical figures. Really
quite derivative.

Jobs even mentions the Nike ads in a talk about Think Different:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vNjpgLD0Xw>

~~~
acqq
"Just do it" ads started in 1988, almost a decade before Think Different
campaign, here's to compare:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENi1SvEFqsQ>

Thanks for posting the Jobs' ad introduction, I've seen his talk before, but I
as watched it after reading both the article and Isaacson's bio I saw
something new and different.

I also have an impression that Rob Siltanen didn't remember correctly the
Jobs' attire on that day as he saw him, that it was not actually a "black mock
turtleneck" but a black sweater just like in the video.

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freshfey
Kinda OT, but forbes.com doesn't let me view the whole article on one page and
as an avid instapaper user, this makes the experience cumbersome.

~~~
swale
Use viewtext to un-paginate it
[http://viewtext.org/article?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%...](http://viewtext.org/article?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fonmarketing%2F2011%2F12%2F14%2Fthe-
real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign%2F)

~~~
freshfey
Exactly, what I was looking for, thanks a ton! :)

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ssharp
When I read about the 'Think Different' campaign in the Isaacson book, I was
surprised to find out that they had recording a version of the ad with Jobs
doing the voiceover instead of Richard Dreyfus.

I looked the ad up right away on YouTube, along with the Dreyfus one, and
compared the two. The Jobs one was so much more powerful, but the power likely
came from 1) his death and 2) everything that occurred AFTER the campaign and
before his death. Apple was clearly better off with the Dreyfus ad at the
time, even though the Jobs version seems so much better now.

~~~
johno215
I think Jobs' voice works surprisingly well for that ad. I especially like
they way he says "and they have no respect for the status quo" for some
reason.

[1] Steve Job's Voice <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQaAg3uxS24>

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famousactress
I'm particularly interested that this article seems to defy the anecdote about
Chiat/Day presenting the campaign with the tagline 'Think Differently', and
Jobs making the change to 'Think Different'.

Whichever the case, the decision to use _Different_ instead of _Differently_
is profound.

~~~
js2
That's not how it's recounted in the Isaacson biography. Jobs says it was
pitched as "Think Different." and that they debated Different vs Differently
after it was pitched.

 _This chokes me up, this really chokes me up. It was so clear that Lee loved
Apple so much. Here was the best guy in advertising. And he hadn’t pitched in
ten years. Yet here he was, and he was pitching his heart out, because he
loved Apple as much as we did. He and his team had come up with this brilliant
idea, “Think Different.” And it was ten times better than anything the other
agencies showed. It choked me up, and it still makes me cry to think about it,
both the fact that Lee cared so much and also how brilliant his “Think
Different” idea was. Every once in a while, I find myself in the presence of
purity—purity of spirit and love—and I always cry. It always just reaches in
and grabs me. That was one of those moments. There was a purity about that I
will never forget. I cried in my office as he was showing me the idea, and I
still cry when I think about it._

[…]

 _They debated the grammatical issue: If “different” was supposed to modify
the verb “think,” it should be an adverb, as in “think differently.” But Jobs
insisted that he wanted “different” to be used as a noun, as in “think
victory” or “think beauty.” Also, it echoed colloquial use, as in “think big.”
Jobs later explained, “We discussed whether it was correct before we ran it.
It’s grammatical, if you think about what we’re trying to say. It’s not think
the same, it’s think different. Think a little different, think a lot
different, think different. ‘Think differently’ wouldn’t hit the meaning for
me.”_

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cafard
"Nobody stands around the water cooler talking about print ads." Outside ad
agencies, does anybody stand around the water cooler talking about TV ads?
This reads to me as if Julia Ward Howe were to explain how she turned the tide
of the Civil War after First Manassas...

~~~
steve8918
If you lived in Silicon Valley, Apple had HUGE banners with their Think
Different campaign that you could see from 280. I distinctly remember driving
around there in 1997, and seeing the banner with Einstein's face, if I
remember correctly, and getting goosebumps.

And this was when Apple was a laughingstock at the Brass Ring job fairs (if
any of you remember those). I remember no one even bothering to line up for a
job for Apple.

~~~
cafard
I have never lived in California. As to Einstein, the columnist Charles
Krauthammer remarked that one common attribute of the notables depicted in the
campaign--Einstein, Gandhi, etc.--was that none had ever used a computer, let
alone a Mac.

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magoon
So it was copied from IBM.

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jaspero
TL;DR Please

~~~
9oliYQjP
Business folks have over-simplified Jobs' contribution to the Think Different
campaign by making it seem he single-handedly was responsible for it. A
handful of people on Lee Clow's team were primarily responsible for the
creation of the ad. Jobs originally hated the concept and within a few minutes
decided it was the right one to choose. Then he changed his mind again after
seeing the script for the ad. This original script -- strictly in my opinion
-- sounded bland. It is given in the article. I can see where his "it's shit"
comment came from. The agency investigated some other options while the author
of the original script got fed up and moved onto other companies campaigns.
Jobs then re-visited the original script along with Lee Clow. Jobs was able to
use his influence to make this version better by getting Clow to lure more
talented writers to tweak the script, voice actors to read it, and nicer
pictures/scenes for the imagery in the ad.

~~~
efsavage
Business folks have over-simplified Jobs' contribution to _everything_ by
making it seem he single-handedly was responsible for _anything_.

~~~
figgles
I heard he even cured can-- aww.... sorry...

~~~
rbanffy
Too soon. He was a very flawed person, but will be missed nevertheless.

~~~
efsavage
Missed, yes, but, if there were two Steve Jobses in this world, you can be
sure of two things:

    
    
      1. They'd hate each other
      2. The other would have laughed at that joke.

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pensiveye
The moment that about face happened, when he said, "Screw it." That was when
Mr. Jobs created the campaign. Certainly there was creative work involved that
deserves much credit, but the leap was made in that mind and in that moment.
In the first page of the online article, more deference ought to have been
paid to the man for that reason.

I am NOT a Mac.

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razzaj
I gave up on reading this article after the first page. Please spare us the X
is great but I am greater speeches.

