Thread by @JonErlichman

“Here’s to the crazy ones…”

Apple’s “Think Different” commercial first aired on this day in 1997.

Apple was nearly bankrupt at the time.

Here’s more on the campaign that was part of Apple’s turnaround… 🧵

Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, after being away for 12 years.

He quickly realized the company was 3 months away from going broke.

Aside from the hard decision to drop most Apple products to re-focus…

…he made peace with Microsoft…

…and…he needed a new ad campaign.

Jobs started by asking the question… what does Apple stand for?

He concluded the answer had little to do with technology…

…and everything to do with people who used and worked with Apple products.

Here, he explains how he set out to focus on Apple’s core values:

Launching an ad campaign with lots of iconic personalities doesn’t just happen.

So Jobs picked up the phone.

He called Bob Dylan…

…and Jim Henson’s family.

He called Time Warner to buy the rights to a famous photo of Gandhi, one of his heroes…

…and he flew to New York to meet with Yoko Ono, seeking her permission.

As a side note, 13 years earlier…

…Sean Lennon had been given one of the first Macs.

It was a birthday gift from Jobs.

Apple was initially interested in having Robin Williams read the voice over.

Tom Hanks was also considered.

In the end, everyone was very happy with Richard Dreyfuss’ narration.

Dreyfuss was also an Apple fan.

If you have since heard the version that is read by Steve Jobs…

…the ad team almost went with Jobs’ narration, but Jobs said:

“This is about the future of Apple. And if people think this is about me…then we’ve blown it. So we’ve got to do Dreyfuss.”

Of course, Jobs was always extremely competitive…especially with IBM.

Here he is at IBM in 1983.

In selecting “Think Different” for its campaign…

…Apple was well aware that “Think” had been an IBM slogan for decades.

While the campaign today is widely viewed as a huge success…

…there were plenty of early critics.

This was from the L.A. Times:

“It’s perfect that Apple is doing a campaign with a bunch of dead guys because the brand will be dead soon, too”

A year after Jobs’ return to Apple, things were indeed looking different.

New products like iMac rolled out…

…and Apple’s stock was up 80%.

While the “Think Different” campaign was just part of the turnaround…

…Jobs felt it was a campaign that touched the soul of the company.

Here are some final thoughts on that: