Apple Computer has dedicated the home page of Apple.com to a “Think Different” tribute to the late Rosa Parks. Apple also has a page with a brief history of Parks’ life and a link to the National Civil Rights Museum.
More here: http://www.apple.com/
And here: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2005/10/rosaparks/
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Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. 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? We make tools for these kinds of people. 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. |
I think this was a really classy thing to do on Apple’s part. Good going guys.
A good thing that tribute. With all the traffic on Apple’s website, this will make more kids aware of the importance of civil rights than a lengthy obituary in the Washington Post.
Thanks to MDN for posting this article and the “Think Different” movie.
I will remember this when I want RAM, new iPod, or my next Mac by buying using your ads, so you guys get something back for the bandwidth.
Thanks.
And what’s on Dell.com? Dell junk for sale.
On Microsoft.com? “Remove Viruses from your Computer.”
Think Different, indeed.
MDN MW: “quality.”
Very classy for Apple to recognize Rosa Parks like that.
I remember when Apple first launched the “Think Different” campaign, quite a lot of people, including Mac users, derided the campaign. It was too abstract. Where were the Macs? Where was the sell? And “Think Different” isn’t even grammatical! (missing the point that thinking “different” captured the point much better than “Think Differently”, which would have sounded contrived and awkward)
But a couple years after the campaign, Steve Jobs said in an interview that the whole Think Different campaign was originated mostly for Apple’s internal consumption. When he returned to Apple in 1997, the company was teetering from one crisis to another. Morale was really, really bad. After Jobs managed to stage a coup, one of his biggest priorities was to rally the troops and the “Think Different” campaign was meant to show Apple employees that they were indeed capable to changing the world. They weren’t just building computers, they were building tools of creativity and change.
Yet again, Jobs was able to perceive things that his critics could not. And Apple today is much the way it is because of the pride instilled by that original Think Different campaign.
Obviously an important event for Apple to revert to an old advertising style…
Now that’s the reason Apple and Microsoft are different. One pays tribute, and one will copy them 2 months later…
~Caleb
Nice tribute, Apple.
“Here’s to the crazy ones…”
SNL or somebody did a spoof on this commercial; i’ve never been able to read those words quite in the same light ever since.
NewType writes: “And “Think Different” isn’t even grammatical! (missing the point that thinking “different” captured the point much better than “Think Differently”, which would have sounded contrived and awkward)”
“Think Different” sounds odd and uneducated to my ears; “Think Differently” has a better ring to it.
Rainy Day…
I think this is what you’re talking about.
http://pulsar.esm.psu.edu/Faculty/Gray/graphics/movies/thinkdifferent2.mov
A very effective piece of goodwill marketing, especially judging by the comments above. Apple has come a long, long way since their bumbling switcher campaign.
Ive emailed the article to a few people, not quite sure they will pick up the significance or not..
Great article though.
Just plain classy.
I love this ad. Is there a better quality one out there somewhere? Might be time for a remake with some more recent ‘trouble makers’.
I love apple, and I love the tribute. But I am worried that is might be interperted as if they are trying to profit off of Rosa Parks’ death. This is not the case, of course, but some people could argue that it is. I hope not.
{I’ll quote myself here, because it’s on topic}
Hard to be original or creative when you don’t have a soul.
Case in point: Today, October 25, 2005 Apple home page has a picture of Rosa Parks sitting in a seat on a bus (a white man sits in the seat behind her). The caption reads: “[Apple Logo] Think Different… Rosa Parks, 1913-2005”. If you weren’t paying attention, Rosa Parks past away yesterday.
On Microsoft’s home page on the very same day? Their headline reads: “Remove viruses from your computer…”
‘Nuff said.
“I love apple, and I love the tribute. But I am worried that is might be interperted as if they are trying to profit off of Rosa Parks’ death. This is not the case, of course, but some people could argue that it is. I hope not.”
Of course it is. Not to say there aren’t real sentiments there, but do you think for a second they would undertake this tribute, or make ANY other homepage change or gesture of any kind without business interests driving them?
This is a branding exercise, plain and simple. They are attaching themseves to Rosa Parks for the primary purpose of getting people to feel the same way they do about Rosa Parks and her historical and courageous accomplishments everytime they see or hear the brand name “Apple”. It’s a really cheap and often effective channel of advertising, and all major corporations do it.
Ms Parks was an example of the genius of democracy and a prime example of why people continue to come to America. We are not perfect as a nation, but are capable of change. One person CAN make a huge difference. Her brave stand changed our nation and by extension, the world.
Rest in peace.
Well done.
I love Apple when it does things like this — it just makes me so proud to be a Mac user — thanks MDN for pointing this out… I don’t think Parks was part of the TV commercial, just part of their outdoor campaign, but that commercial almost always brings me near to tears…
You people who think this is a “branding exercise” by Apple don’t really understand Apple’s history or Steve Jobs or Woz (whose influence is still part of Apple).
Read and learn a little – Apple is different than most any other company in the world.
Even if 50%, or 90%, of companies were doing this for the self-interested reason you mention, you DON’T know that’s why Apple is doing it!! It doesn’t even matter–it’s still be a good thing to do.
BTW, cynical sh*ts like you questioning other people’s motives without any evidence is just slimy.
Do you think it makes you seem “smart”?
Jake
Rainy Day: “Think Different” sounds odd and uneducated to my ears; “Think Differently” has a better ring to it.”
It never bothered me, because to my mind they’re not telling you *how* to think; they’re telling you *what* to think. It’s like “Think big,” which is a pretty common phrase. (“Think largely” makes no sense.) Or “think peace” (not “think peacefully”).
I just googled “think bigly,” and got a couple hits of people making this same point back when the ads first appeared–with almost the exact wording–so it’s not just me.
Very classy! Good job Apple.
Makes you wish Rosa Parks was part of the original TV ad, but with all of human history to choose from (Okay, history that had B&W movie film to choose from) you couldn’t include everyone you wanted. You did get Martin Luther King in there.
Again good job, it works!
Now I’m off to talk to my 4 kids about this page.
Garth, you’re an idiot.
Rainy Day, “different” in this case is INTENDED to be an adjective, not an adverb. Read it that way and it makes sense as well as being grammatically correct.
Jake,
Let me ask you this: if they were doing this purely out of altruism, then why do they put the “Think Different” slogan and Apple logo right there on the very top of historical photograph of Rosa Parks? Do you think Apple benefits from that at all? Wouldn’t the more repectful (and easier) thing to do have been to leave the photo unedited?
I don’t know whether it’s a good thing to do or not; I don’t feel that’s for me to decide. Personally I think the only people who can make that determination are her immediate family. FYI, this is what her niece said in an Associated Press interview, specifically about some lawyers before she died:
“As a family, our fear is that during her last days Auntie Rosa will be surrounded by strangers trying to make money off of her name.”
I truly hope they don’t feel the same way about the kind of thing Apple is doing too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks