Gripevine

The internet is like a force of unmoderated power. It has ushered in progress yes, but every once in a while something happens that gets us thinking. Last week was one of those moments. The topic was plagiarism and the man of the moment was Jonathan Mak, 19, a graphic design student from Hong Kong. In August he posted  a design of an Apple logo on his Tumblr blog  http://jmak.tumblr.com/ as a tribute to Steve Jobs who resigned the same month. Nothing happened, then Jobs died on Oct 5, and suddenly Mak became an instant sensation! His design was shared from one corner of the virtual universe to another, well this is Tumblr after all! - the reblog blog. Instant Fame   Ashton Kutcher posted the design on his Twitter account, it was also printed on commemorative caps and T-shirts sold on eBay, news media reported on it, job offers started rolling in. In short Mak was famous! Then he became infamous. By the very weekend of Jobs death, people started telling him how s...

Steve Jobs was one opinionated fellow. Besides Apple and turtlenecks, he was also known for uttering memorable quotes and quips. Some were barbs aimed at competitors *ouch*, but a lot of it was inspirational in nature. So last week when the world awoke to news of his death, netizens flooded social media platforms with his most memorable quotes - " Stay hungry, stay foolish", they urged each other. Admirers paid gushing tribute to the man, his life and achievements. Now all these Job-aholics, the ones who were deifying the man and garlanding him with virtual wreaths, do they really understand what he meant? Remember "Think Different"? That famous slogan from Apple's 1997 advertising campaign......well Facebook and Twitter was flooded with people telling each other to "Think Different". Easy enough to say, but how many people out there are brave enough to think different and be different? Faced with those twin Demons - Society and Social Pre...

TIME Magazine is in the business of celebrating icons, innovators, newsmakers and revolutionaries, hence it's no surprise that Steve Jobs was frequently featured on its cover. Six times in his lifetime and the seventh posthumously - a special commemorative issue which hits newsstands today. Jobs and TIME through the years February 15, 1982 Jobs was a heartbeat away from being named TIME's Person of the Year in 1982. The cover story had already been written and Jobs himself was half-expecting the coveted honour to go to him. However in the end, the magazine's editors made a surprising choice and named the computer - Machine of the Year.   August 18, 1997 October 18, 1999 January 14, 2002 October 24, 2005 April 12, 2010 The cover image was taken in 1984. TIME stopped the presses to produce this special commemorative issue which devotes 21 pages to Jobs' life and career. The highlights are: A six page essay by Jobs'...

In great advertising lies great power. Which is why come campaign season, political parties will spend huge amounts of funds on advertising to steer voter sentiment in their direction. One powerful slogan, an effective accompanying strategy, and voila! miracles can happen - Barrack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States. Malaysian political parties should take a leaf out of Obama's book and start hunting around for a good advertising agency. Who knows, one super concept, and change could come to Malaysia too! Well I digress, the objective of this post is not politics, but advertising......and to be more specific, it's about an advertising campaign that touched the hearts and minds of consumers in the late 1990s and still continues to do so. The name of the campaign is Think Different , and it was based on a poem The Crazy Ones . It was commissioned by Steve Jobs to revive the ailing Apple brand after his return to the company on December 20, 1996. An Ad Is B...