Apple computer’s return from ashes in 1997 began in the public’s mind with one wildly successful ad campaign: “Think Different”.
The story for how the ad campaign came together can be found on forbes.com. Back then, the hemorrhaging Apple Computer Corporation desperately hired back Steve Jobs, who led the company back from the ashes in spectacular fashion. The Apple PCs were then perceived as toys. Yet he established them as a counter-culture revolution. To be taken seriously by business and the public, it needed respect. It needed to show to the world how it was…different. It was an alternative.
Today, Apple is as mainstream as apple pie. They are now the fifth biggest company listed in The Fortune 500. How long can you say you’re different when everybody else tries to be you? Is it possible for a company to continue to claim to ‘think different” when they are constantly being imitated? Think differently from who? Apple managed to climb all the way back up to the top of its industry and recent estimates indicate it has over 160 billion dollars cash on hand; the reserve is larger than many nations‘. This was all before lines began forming for the latest iPhone release.
The “Think Different” campaign is timeless. The poetic and timeless words were fitting for a company still on the edge of being regarded as a historical footnote.
Bitcoin is not a company, it’s a technology. Many of its initial fans formed into a spontaneous naturally occurring counter-culture movement rather than one being artificially designed by an advertising agency as part of a re-branding effort. Bitcoin has no expensive advertising campaign or budget. Its own culture started in true life back streets and basements of the world – not boardrooms and advertising pitches. The total market capitalization of bitcoin is currently less than 3% of just the available cash on hand at Apple.
In the “Think Different” advertisements, we see black and white images from some of history’s most brilliant people who became the literal poster boys of those that thought differently. Today, placing Steve Jobs on that list would likely not find much resistance. The spirit and achievements of this group have become legendary… and will live on long from now.
We pay homage to this great ad campaign and the spirit of rebellious respect it gives to the past “crazy ones”. Following the original spirit of the creators of the award winning advertising concept, we’ve recreated the message below but with a twist. Today, it seems to be more fitting that a true counter-culture movement be used. Today’s bitcoin leaders (with some creative license) that push forward the latest technology.
Here now are some of the celebrated “crazy” bitcoin geniuses that have helped get bitcoin this far.
