Think different/think differently

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.”


Think different/think differently 由陶傑提起。陶傑本著反grammarian的作風，說usage 是think different,不應強說think differently.古德明當然不放過這大好的話題。一度以為是美式英語的用法，因為只有在Oxford American Dictionary 查到有think big 及think positive 例句，think 是否可以跟different 一起用呢?現在真相大白，開心得想死。朝聞道，夕可死矣。語言是活的，Oxford 定會將這例句收在新版的字典內。