Computersight -

In 1997 Steve Jobs and Apple inc. created an advertising campaign entitled “Everybody is Different,” but was later changed to the famous and more marketable “Think Different.”There is speculation that Steve jobs changed the slogan to combat the IBM “Think” slogan.Think Different was an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in 1997 by the Los Angeles office of advertising agency TBWAChiatDay. 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 (apple 2006).

The text for the ad campaign included the following:

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. (Hoffman 1998).

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 by Richard Dreyfuss.

The one minute commercial featured black and white footage of significant historical people of the past including 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 (and 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 (Apple 2006).

The thirty second commercial used many of the people above, but closed with Jerry Seinfeld in a Spoof on the sitcome Seinfeld. In order it played Einstein, Dylan, King, Lennon, Graham, Ali, Hitchcock, Gandhi, Henson, Callas, Picasso, and Seinfeld. This commercial only aired once, during a series finale of Seinfeld. Many other television shows used some type of version of this commercial, but most notably Seinfeld.

The campaign was made almost entirely in-house by the team at TBWA/Chiat/ Day/ Los Angeles with chairman and chief creative officer worldwide and account director, Lee Clow, Creative directors Ken Segall, Rob Siltanen, Eric Grunbaum, and Amy Moorman, Executive producer director and art director Jennifer Golub, Art directorsd Jessica Schulman, Margaret Midgett, Ken Younglieb, Bob Kuperman, Yvonne Smith, Susan Alinsangan, Copyrighter 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 research with Nickerson Research (Elliot 1998).

The goal of the campaign is to further polish the once-tarnished Apple brand name, asserting that the company nurtures creativity by behaving as unconventionally as the accomplished thinkers and doers who are praised as “the round pegs in the square holes” in television commercials, print ads, billboards, posters and wall signs (Elliot 1998). “The ads are for people who don’t care what the computer does,” said Allen Olivo, senior director for worldwide marketing communications at Apple, “but care about what they can do with the computer” (Elliot 1998). The celebrated strivers who make it through a nomination and selection process at Apple and its advertising agency are portrayed in the ads as larger-than-life icons in striking black-and-white photographs. They are presented as the kind of heroes who, a commercial proclaims, “push the human race forward,” a phrase that flatters the intended audience for recognizing the subjects (Elliot 1998).

On August 3, 1997, Steve Jobs presented a new slogan and aesthetic for Apple’s ads: Think Different and montages of artists and creative professionals using the Mac. In an interview with Electric Escape, Lee Clow, the creative director of chiat/day, said that he wanted to feature filmmakers at Dreamworks SKG working on their Macs( Forbes 2000).

Jobs was enamored with the concept, though now using anonymous figures. And instead of Dreamworks filmmakers, he wanted to use celebrities and thinkers.

Jobs had long been a fan of black and white portraits and prints. NeXT’s offices were decorated with poster-sized prints from Ansel Adams, and Jobs’ manse in Los Gatos was decorated with black and white portraits of his heroes, including Albert Einstein. He began brainstorming on the spot.

The campaign debuted on September 28, 1997 and was remarkably popular. Unlike some of Apple’s earlier major campaigns, it received glowing press write-ups (braiker 2007). The ads won a slew of awards and developed a cult-following. After the first campaign, Apple started sending complimentary posters to public schools across the nation featuring different celebrities including Pablo Picasso, Jane Goodall, and Ron Howard to hang in classrooms. The complete packets now sell for hundreds of dollars on some websites.

But more importantly, how did Apple inc, Steve Jobs, and Lee Clow use the marketing mix to create such a successful campaign? The first part of the mixed they marketed is the most obvious and that is the product. At the time Apple’s main product was the iMac and Power Mac. They made it available through the first online computer store. This was later blemished by the fact that they competed against Umax’s updated S900 Mac clone that was cheaper than a Power Mac and much faster, since it was designed to accept a 250 MHz NewerTech G3 processor upgrade. Unfortunetly, the press was more concerned with the Umax debacle than Apple’s product availability (Braiker 2007) .

Secondly, the price of the product was not consistent with its competitors equivalent. The supply to demand ratio was not in Apple’s favor either, so the demand for a new advertising campaign to replace the existing one was definitely present. So, as previously stated Steve Jobs and Apple inc went to Chiat/Day and Lee Clow for help; thus, creating the “Think Different” ad campaign.

Thirdly, Apple placed the product a convient place for people who owned or had access to the internet. Ironically, if they had neither then they could not purchase a Mac. They later started Apple stores, but are still not prevelant today. They are only found in major cities and even then are difficult to find.

Finally, Chiat/Day address the most important part of the marketing mix and that is promotion. Ever since the famous “1984” campaign Apple was lacking in this department. They had fallen behind competitors such as IBM, Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett Packard. The non-personal communication from most of Apple’s ad campaigns is changed into a more personal role with “Think Different” by attacking the vanity of the everyday person. This is exactly why Clow made Apple’s most important ad Campaign.

Apple used the Maslow’s Hierarchy to attack the very top tier, self realization. It is obvious that a computer does not apply to the psychological desire, safely and stability, or social desire. But this campaign, one could contest, also applies to the next tier of self esteem. As the campaign insuates, anyone who owns a Mac computer is not only a leader, but an innovator. Usually people who think different are outcast, but not with Apple. Apple speaks out in this ad campaign saying that it is not all that bad to think different. And in doing so, they also touch on the top tier of self realization. Once someone realizes that they can be someone who thinks different then they can participate in the purchasing of Mac computers. And according to Maslow’s Hierarchy, this ad adds value to their product. It helps the consumer choose a product not only by its physical characteristics.

After the airing of the ad, the amount of funds used to advertised was dramatically raised ten percent by Apple’s competitors (Bulik 2007). Thus proving the success of the campign; anytime a competitors’ ad stimulates one another then the ad is considered successful.

A year after the launch of the “Think Different” campaign the Apple computer stock rose twenty points and eventually climbed over one hundred dollars a share (Forbes 1998). Because of the rise in stock prices, the board of directors had to split the stock and presently they are valued once again over one hundred dollars with help of the release of the highly anticipated iPhone.

The “Think Different” ad campaign, particularly the end, shows Apple’s idea of their target audience. When they show Shaan Sahota, the young girl, opening her eyes as if to metaphorically have her eyes opened to the idea of thinking differently and using an Apple product (Devlin 1999). The message Apple inc. is trying to convey in this advertising campaign is obvious and coherent.

In review, in 1997 Steve Jobs and Apple inc created an advertising campaign entitled “Think Different.” With the help of Lee Clow and the Chiat/Day advertising firm, Apple changed the reputation of the corporation by creating the one of the most influential ad campaigns in history. They created a new target audience of the more creative and innovative youth.