What happened to “Think Different”

We all remember Apple’s 1984 commercial, which aired at half-time of the Super Bowl, directed by Ridley Scott (who’s behind Alien and Blade Runner, just to name a few). A re-make of the original ad was made in 2004, to add the iPod to the athletic woman with the sledgehammer. The mini-movie that is only 45 seconds, cost $1.6 million to produce, and Apple paid $500,000 for the 45 seconds to air at the Super Bowl (This coming up Super Bowl, ad’s are going for $2.5 million for a 30 second ad space). The whole idea behind the commercial was to show Apple battling adjust Big Brother (which was IBM), and with a burst of the screen the crowd of robots sees the light, so to speak.

1984 Video

Later in 1995, the commercial was declared as the best as of the last 50 years. But now of day in 2006, Apple seems to have lost the ball with their ads, not to say that the 1984 commercial was it for Apple, their iPod commercials with the people dancing around with a white iPod have been impressive, unique, and hold a style all on their own. With that said, Apple seems to be right out ripping their commercials from others.

Case 1: iPod commercial with Eminem.

Steve Jobs introduced the ad to a whole audience during his keynote, stating that it was something Apple wanted to do for some time, as a commercial. But after another look, it’s simple a ripping of the Lugz’s commercial’s from 2001 with the same art style, color, and city images. The all major different between the two, are little and have to do with visual lines that float around. In Apple’s version it’s an orange color, that seems to drawl text and signs, but in the Lugz’s ad it’s a black arrow that adds a dynamic flow along with the dancer. The other variation in Apples version of the ad is the addition of the paint affect, that follows Eminem’s foot steps. And lastly there’s different music, and that’s it. Lugz footwear in return has sent Apple a legal cease-and-desist letter ordering Apple to pull the plug on the Eminem iPod commercial, maybe that’s why Apple made a new iPod ad not to long after. Also this may put some truth to the rumor of Apple removing the iPod ad for a period. But it’s easier to see it for yourself to know the truth.

iPod Video

Lugz Video

Case 2: Apples commercial, Intel chips ‘set free’ inside the Mac

It would seem that Apple would have stopped their tactics, but no. Once again Apple does it again and rips off another source for its ad, this time a music video. The band known as The Postal Service, has had their music video ‘Such Great Heights’ frame for frame remade into an Apple ad. In this case, Apple has taken the concept of ripping their ideas to a whole new level, the scenes in the Apple commercial are frame for frame with the video ‘Such Great Heights.’ Before I go on, I recommend you view the ad along side the music video.

Comparison Video
Left Side Ad – Right Side Video

Now of what the band has to say:

A Note from Ben
It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers’ new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shop recreation of our video for ‘Such Great Heights’ make by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent. –Ben Gibbard, The Postal Service

But how can this be? Simple, Apple hired the same director team, Josh Melnick and Xander Charity, that did the music video, so who’s to blame? It’s unknown for now, anyway, if Apple know that it was a remake frame for frame of the music video that the directors did, is hard to say, or if the directors couldn’t come up with something new. I will say this, its beauty poor of the directors to use the same idea again for a huge amount of money.

Seems this doesn’t end here, along with the fact that the rip doesn’t even have the music form The Postal Service in the background. The music video ‘Such Great Heights’ that can (get this) now be bought from iTunes, its also edited from it’s original form. It seems for some odd reason Apple has blurred out about 80% or so of the word ‘SKYWORKS’ from the music video, mostly where it’s legible. On top of this, it seems that the iTunes Music Store, has ‘Such Great Heights’ video as the most downloaded music video, seems Apple is pushing this video, maybe to make The Postal Service happy some how.

So why is Apple doing this? I’m not sure, I’ll keep digging into it as things continue.