Curious yet stubborn, Steve Jobs was famously contrarian. But the Apple (US:AAPL) co-founder also understood the allure of contrarianism, as the group’s 1997 ‘Think Different’ TV advert shows.
Over black and white footage of 20th century iconoclasts including Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Amelia Earhart and Pablo Picasso, Jobs salutes the “crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently”. The pitch is clear: to be great, or original, or to do good, you cannot conform. You must buck the trend.
Today, the idea that anyone goes against the grain by buying an Apple product is laughable. But 30 years ago, when the Macintosh maker was barely a peer of the mighty Microsoft (US:MSFT), the association was less of a stretch. With hindsight, Jobs’ very conscious attachment of the Apple brand to ‘outsider’ status was a critical early ingredient in the company’s huge subsequent success.