TechNote | In defense of Apple's Think Different campaign

Remember Apple’s “Think Different” ad campaign, derided for being ungrammatical, as in, if they can’t spell how can they can build a computer? Well, let's examine.

“Think Different” was a catchy ad slogan meant to revitalize a once “insanely great” brand. “Different” here is not modifying the verb “think.” If it were, it should indeed be “differently,” the adverbial form. Instead, it’s the object of the verb think, declaring what to think not how to think, as in think big or think pink.

The language maven Jan Freeman, writing in the Boston Globe, May 27, 2001, suggested, “[i]n this 50-year-old idiom, think means not ‘cogitate’ but something like ‘envision’.” Using adjective forms in place of adverbs extends to many other, less scrutinized cases, such as, Freeman notes, “hang loose,” “stay cool,” and “hangs heavy.”