Thinking differently about ‘Think Different’
April 8, 2022Whilst I was student, Apple continued as a source of inspiration for me both in their development of the macintosh computer and also with the breakthrough ‘counter-culture’ marketing that launched it.
One of their most memorable campaigns used a series of black and white portraits of creative geniuses whose thinking and work actively changed their respective fields. It was the iconic ‘Think different’ campaign. [Fig. 1]
John Berger says in his book ‘Ways Of Seeing’:
“the purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. Not with the way of life of society, but with his own within it. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better. It offers him an improved alternative to what he is.”[1]
Apple and Steve Jobs curated the photography, buying the image rights, and in doing so associated ‘thinking differently’ with high technology, celebrating the values, beliefs and revolutionary qualities of those featured (such as Ghandi) with the Apple brand and it’s products. [Fig. 2] Ultimately, it suggests to consumers that they can become ‘improved alternatives’ of themselves, that purchasing a Macintosh computer would elevate them to the same level as the ‘revolutionaries’ pictured in the ads.
The purchase and use of these images raises issues of ownership, consent, and ethics in the appropriation of photographs. Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama has said that photography has never been anything other than copying, hence why he takes photos of posters and billboards, even when it contains an image by another photographer.
“I think everyone should be free to copy anything they want to. What else is a photograph but a copy to begin with?”[2]
Roland Barthes explains that the word image stems from a Latin term meaning imitation, posing the question of whether images can truly function as conveyers of meaning given that they are essentially imitations.[3]
Whether or not an image can belong to anyone, it’s doubtful Ghandi would have approved of, or given permission for his image to be used had he still been alive as he saw a very low level of technology as the right means for changing the world, in contrast to that promised by Apple.
[1] BERGER, John. 1972. Ways of seeing. London: Penguin.
[2] NAKAMOTO, Takeshi. 2019. Daido Moriyama: How I Take Photographs. Laurence King Pub (GB).
[3] BARTHES, Roland. 1977. Image-Music-Text. New York: Hill and Wang.