Apple — Think Different
Brief
Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple in 1997 after 12 years out. The company was 90 days from bankruptcy. TBWA\Chiat\Day was asked to produce a campaign that answered only one question: is Apple still a real company? The brief wasn't "sell computers." It was: make it credible that this brand still exists.
Core Idea
Don't show the product. Show who uses it. And define that user through the company's own myth of rebels and outsiders — Einstein, Dylan, MLK, Picasso, Ali. The sideways move: Apple has no right to claim these figures, so the audacity of claiming them becomes the argument. The tagline "Think Different" grammatically wrong (should be "Differently") on purpose — a small formal transgression that signals the rest.
Deliverables
- 60-second launch TV spot (narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, though Jobs recorded an alternate)
- Print series: full-page B&W portraits + "Think Different" lockup + Apple rainbow logo
- Outdoor billboards in NY, LA, SF
- No product shots anywhere until 1998.
Why It's In The Canon
This is the modern template for every brand-rehabilitation campaign. More importantly, it's the birth of "brand as meaning-system you buy into" as a dominant business model — subsequently weaponized by Nike, Patagonia, Airbnb, Liquid Death. Good to study AND to be wary of: the manipulative potential here scales alongside the craft.
Connected To
- Apple — the object of the campaign
