The Ways to New

Chapter 15Brand-Led Disruption

“Think Different.” Very few slogans encapsulate what a company stands for in such a compelling way. Our agency in Los Angeles, TBWA/Chiat/Day, came up with it in 1997 to mark Steve Jobs' return. He had no new products to sell. The spirit of Apple needed urgent revival. Lee Clow, our network's creative leader, puts it this way: “We had to reach back and find the soul of the company once again.”

Steve Jobs loved our two-word motto, convinced, as he was, that “people with passion can change the world for the better.”¹ He regarded the film we made showing Einstein, Picasso, Gandhi, and many other guiding spirits as “honoring the people who think different and move the world forward.” The impact of “Think Different” was not just external. The internal resonance was important too. Our posters showing twentieth-century geniuses stayed on the walls at Apple for years, in the reception area and elsewhere. I imagine they made a tiny contribution to people's hunger for innovation as they passed them every morning on their way to work.

In a book published in 2007 called How Disruption Brought Order,² I tried to depict how advertising works at its best. When client chief executives quote our slogans in their speeches, we know we've hit the right spot.

Steve Jobs referred to “Think Different” when he addressed IT retailers. Erich Stamminger, the former CEO of Adidas, exclaimed “Impossible Is Nothing” before a crowd of enthusiastic employees.³ Carlos Ghosn has ...