Monday, May 17, 2010

Think Different

I found out about this today, something that probably the entire planet already knew for many years... never mind. In 1997 Apple launched a campaign under the title "Think Different". That much I knew... I even saw their so many campaign posters in so many places. My favorite was the one with Maria Callas, me being a (non-corrupt) Greek of course... one of the few left! And a music lover.

Link to the hyperlink I gave you above and you'll find all those posters they used, and also hear someone reading the following text in its complete version (authored by Rob Siltanen of Chiat Day, the company that managed the campaign for Apple):

"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 praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

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."

Splendid content that couldn't be associated with any company I know other than Apple Inc. What I never realized though, and I found out from the Wikipedia article, was that I must have stared at this fabulous text millions of times already, and couldn't tell even if it hit me in the face. What the smart developer cookies from Apple did, you see, in their limitless sense of humor is to put the text (the shorter version that appeared in the campaign) in the application icon of TextEdit, the standard Mac text editor that is supplied on every Mac sold, as part of the OS X software bundle. It is presented as a letter from the famous by now Apple software demo avatar John Appleseed (dude kinda like J6P) addressed to Dear Kate,  referencing Katie Cotton, I suppose, Apple's Public Relations Manager...

Google "think different" just for kicks. You will be amazed to find such a large number of URLs dedicated to that campaign event. It seems that everything Apple does becomes a cult symbol for Apple aficionados worldwide. I won't be surprised to see churches raised in the name of His Jobness after he kicks the bucket, hopefully in no less than 50 years from now... ;-)

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