Apple: Here’s to the Crazy Ones

Creator: Advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day (1997)
Purpose: Promotional Campaign as a series of television and print commercials.

Manifesto

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. 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? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
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.

Sources

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Different

Comment

For me, this is one of the great manifestos that inspired the view of a Double-Sided Vision.

The strength of ‘Here’s to the Crazy Ones’ is that while it is literally an advertisement for a company, the ad does not sell a specific product.

Instead, Apple pitch a worldview that their users are likely to aspire to. It’s permission to be creative, just a little crazy, and ultimately change the world.

It’s a classic call to arms which is an essential quality of all great manifestos. And while an advertisement calling to its customers, it also has the bigger picture idealism that would inspire, motivate and engage the Apple workforce. That’s a double-sided vision.

I can imagine designer Johnny Ive walking into the then CEO Steve Job’s office with his latest prototype for the new curvy and colourful iMac and having Steve play the ad as the benchmark of success.

He might even ask: Is this crazy enough to change the world?

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