What do you think of this ad?
To the right is an add that Apple is running in India. It uses an image of Mahatma Gandhi. In case you have not heard of mr. Ghandi, he was a major political and spiritual leader in India, during it's struggle to become independent of the British empire. Mr. Ghandi was able to achieve his goals through peaceful civil disobedience. Clearly mr. Ghandi was a great and forward thinking man who was "thinking different"
However, I do not like this ad. While Apple's PR agency will tell you that they are honoring mr. Ghandi, I think Apple's association with his image for pure commercial reasons cheapens the image of this great leader.
Apple's tag line "Think different" is purely a commercial tag line. It has no spiritual value. It is of no deeper value than Microsoft's "Your potential. Our Passion". It is designed to create appeal in a target audience and than milk that audience for as much cash as possible. This simple highly commercial goal is on the bottom of the scale of noble causes whereas mr. Ghandi's goal, achieved through leadership, peaceful protest and suffering is at the very high end of that same scale. Hence my deep emotional objection to this ad.
If you are unfamiliar with mr. Ghandi, I ask you to look at this ad again and substitute the face of a hero of your country for mr. Ghandi in this ad. Some examples: Martin Luther King, George Washington (1st president of the US after declaring independence from the British empire), Nelson Mandela, ... What do you think?
