September 28, 1997: Apple debuts its iconic “Suppose Completely different” advert marketing campaign. The tv business aligns the troubled laptop firm with a few of historical past’s most celebrated freethinking rebels.
Probably the most well-known tagline in Apple historical past, “Suppose Completely different” doesn’t simply articulate how Cupertino differs from its rivals. It additionally highlights how Apple, below the management of CEO Steve Jobs, will forge a future far completely different from its floundering, money-losing days of the early Nineteen Nineties.
Apple ‘Suppose completely different’ advert marketing campaign
Narrated by actor Richard Dreyfuss, the “Suppose Completely different” TV spot begins out with an immediately memorable salute to counterculture beliefs.
“Right here’s to the loopy ones,” Dreyfuss intones. “The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers — the spherical pegs within the sq. holes. Those who see issues otherwise.”
Black-and-white photos of greater than a dozen Twentieth-century visionaries, from Albert Einstein and Buckminster Fuller to John Lennon and Martin Luther King Jr., circulation previous as masterful advertising copy praises the ability of daring concepts.
The spot ends with the highly effective (and grammatically questionable) promoting slogan, “Suppose Completely different.”
Apple reunites with TBWA Chiat/Day a decade after ‘Lemmings’ catastrophe
The profitable “Suppose completely different” advert, and an accompanying set of posters, did greater than merely mark the return of Jobs to Apple. It was additionally the primary Apple advert produced by TBWA Chiat/Day in additional than a decade. (Cupertino ditched the advert company following its notorious “Lemmings” Apple business in 1985, the identical yr Jobs departed the corporate.)
In probably the most cynical phrases attainable, the brand new advertising blitz served as a stalling tactic for Apple. It was an try to persuade shareholders and prospects that issues could be completely different below Jobs.
Whereas most followers seen Jobs’ return with pleasure, it didn’t go unnoticed that probably the most important factor he had executed to date was to announce one of many greatest quarterly losses in Apple historical past.
In contrast to most issues that come out of Cupertino with no forewarning, Apple really tried out “assume completely different” prematurely. Name it a insecurity. Or a savvy transfer to make “assume completely different” appear much less advertising slogan and extra grass-roots spontaneity. Regardless of the case, this Apple advert marketing campaign was, nicely, completely different.
‘Suppose completely different’ advert marketing campaign returns Apple to its roots
Picture: William J Sisti/Flickr CC
As I detailed in a earlier “As we speak in Apple historical past” installment, Jobs tried out the phrase in entrance of an viewers on the 1997 Macworld Expo. In doing so, he was “planting the seeds for the advert in order that it will appear extra natural when Apple debuted the [finished spots].”
The advert copy itself sprang from copywriters Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall (the latter of whom additionally named the iMac).
The “assume completely different” line got here from Craig Tanimoto. He additionally had the thought of pairing up Apple with completely different Twentieth-century thinkers. (This wasn’t solely new territory for Apple: Its “Energy is” advertisements from a few years earlier featured superstar endorsers like gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.)
Jobs himself was persuaded to report a model of the “Suppose Completely different” advert narration, however didn’t enable it to air for worry that folks would contemplate it boastful.
‘Suppose completely different’ stays a part of Apple’s DNA
Jobs initially wished to make use of one among Robin Williams’ inspirational speeches from the film Lifeless Poets Society for the business, till Siltanen and Segall wrote the “Right here’s to the loopy ones” copy.
This concept clearly caught round with somebody at Apple, nonetheless. The corporate wound up utilizing the Williams audio pattern for one among its “Your Verse” advertisements for iPad in 2014.
An Apple advert with a long-lasting influence
Apple discontinued its “Suppose Completely different” advert marketing campaign upon the arrival of the iMac G4 in 2002. Nonetheless, the advertisements’ influence continues to be felt to at the present time. It nonetheless serves as a form of guiding-light mission assertion, much like the Apple Values manifesto of the Nineteen Eighties.
Present Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner, as an illustration, retains a replica of one of many authentic “Suppose Completely different” advertisements in his workplace. And the corporate continues to replace the trademark with a European Patent and Trademark Workplace submitting. (Though folks must be suggested to not argue with Phil Schiller that trendy Apple is something like Apple circa 1997!)
What’s your favourite Apple business? Do you assume Apple nonetheless lives as much as its “assume completely different” mantra? Go away your feedback under.