Malcolm Gladwell considers the late Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the Apple co-founder, in the November 14 issue of the New Yorker:
The famous Apple “Think Different” campaign came from Jobs’s advertising team at TBWA\Chiat\Day. But it was Jobs who agonized over the slogan until it was right:
They debated the grammatical issue: If “different” was supposed to modify the verb “think,” it should be an adverb, as in “think differently.” But Jobs insisted that he wanted “different” to be used as a noun, as in “think victory” or “think beauty.” Also, it echoed colloquial use, as in “think big.” Jobs later explained. “We discussed whether it was correct before we ran it. It’s grammatical, if you think about what we’re trying to say. It’s not think the same, it’s think different. Think a little different, think a lot different, think different. ‘Think differently’ wouldn’t hit the meaning for me.”
After all, it's not "Think pinkly!"; I don't remember anyone caviling about THAT'S being ungrammatical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcCN6XA61Es
Posted by: Scrutatrix | November 07, 2011 at 04:59 PM