How Bad Grammar Saved Apple
I worked as a copy writer for many years, and this story has always interested me. These sorts of campaigns always have so much to teach about the creative process. Hope you enjoy! Would love to hear suggestions for other advertising media that might be interesting to cover.
Comments (17)
I always liked the ambiguity of the construction because, at least when spoken, it could be construed as two separate "traits" to aspire to. I other works, rather than missing an -ly, it was missing a comma. What are two things that define us? We "think, and we're different", or we "think, which makes us different". In other words, I felt it skews "think" towards an adjective, rather than "different" towards and adverb. Aldi ran with the adjectives more boring-ly with "Good Different" (both capitalised).
I've been seeing this more often. Bell and Evans chicken package, under the chicken, it says 'The Excellent Chicken'. Would not have noticed this before.
I think you are super cool that you used to teach grammar.
I howled at "Think differently, idiot." And it got me thinking… I'd love to see a video on the art of The Art of Storytelling. Specifically, how do you script your videos? Like, did you write your visual gags down, or do you cook those up when you're filming/editing? Would love to see how an essay comes together from idea to published video.
Digression: Grammar is frustrating to me. Not its rules — I understand those. I'm frustrated because words are tools, and they are wonderful tools, and grammar is how we use those tools... but we (society) has not taught use of those tools sufficiently to everyone in society. We have a lot of intelligent people who barely know how to use a hammer, and then we make fun of them for not knowing how to use a hammer, because we didn't teach them when we should have done so. (Obviously the copywriters for Apple aren't part of that group we didn't teach well; their aims for this ad campaign were different than an intelligent person whom we refused to adequately educate when they were children.)
I personally believe that extensive reading and writing techniques are more effective than grammar rules to empower people. In my country we are taught tons of grammar between the ages of 6 and 16 and yet I struggle to shape my thoughts and communicate them effectively. Grammar rules have come in hand when I started deep diving into linguistics. Not exactly in everyday life.
Tim Cook's rewrite: Think... profit.
😅
That wasn't the only time they broke grammar rules, either! https://technologizer.com/2008/09/09/funnest-ipod-ever/index.html
Nice one, didn't know about this. This is even MORE egregious!
First of all: how many videos in the last two weeks? What a treat! Second: a video about how language works? Bring it on, I can't get enough!
Thanks Teresa, yeah being full time means I can experiment a lot more - though maybe a double edged sword because I'm at risk of confusing YouTube's algorithm lol
Old days: "Winston tastes good 'like' a cigarette should." That one drove grammarians nuts in the 60s! History repeats itself...often! Thanks for addressing this one!!!
The idea that one pattern of usage is wrong and another is right oversimplifies and misses the point. My house key is the wrong one for unlocking my car, but it's the right one for going inside. Language users tailor their expressions to the audience and the context. More technically, this use of "think" combines not only with adverbs and adjectives but also with nouns, which indicates that its functioning in these phrases is more along the lines of "consider this as opposed to some other option." In other words, consider something different, not something conventional.
It’s a phrase that goes right to the core of identity. Do you choose conformity or innovation? Think different means be different.
Ponder thought.. Consider introspective.. It really does turn it into a bit of poetry.
I love that commercial. What made it for me was a perfect matching of text and Richard Dreyfuss his voice.