Think Different Commercial Analysis

LeTV’s advertisement shown in China is an example of how advertisements can strengthen their message by alluding to other creations, especially if the viewer makes the connection. Apple’s “Think Different” advertisement borrows group thinks and conformity from George Orwell’s book “1984,” and changes it to portray IBM as a company that uses their autocratic nature to brainwashes their users. LeTV alludes primarily from Apple and portrays Apple exactly the same as IBM showing the irony in their viewpoint. Hence, LeTV via the use of costumes, actions, and the destruction of the ritual, degrades Apple’s brand in hopes of promoting their own smartphone. Apple alludes to communism and 1984, LeTV draws a parallel of this towards Apple through the
In Apple’s Think Different commercial, the people were all wearing identical full-body suits, LeTV borrowed this and recreated it by having “Apple consumers” wear white full-body suits. From this application, LeTV is able to establish a connection between Apple’s consumers and communist followers to mock them. By mimicking the scene from 1984 that Apple alluded to, where the crowd sat in an orderly fashion wearing the same clothes and listening to big brother talk, replacing that crowd with a congregation, a parallel between the two commercials is further established. This is an effective parallel because, during that time period communism wasn’t successful due to its close-mindedness, people were unable to adapt to the changes in the world and come up with new ideas due to the autocratic nature of communism. Apple is an American company where communism ideologies are rejected, which is ironic because in LeTV’s ad the customer’s dedication to Apple is so great that it resembles the western version of
While, in the process also pointing out the irony in Apple being similar to the western version of communism that is rejected by their country. Whether it’s the scene of Apple consumers in costume with face paint or the idea of them resembling a congregation. LeTV by structuring their advertisement heavily around Apple’s “Think Different” commercial and adding their twist of satire are able to point out the hypocrisy in Apple, exposing them, and establishing themselves as a company that is better than Apple. Finally, arriving at their goal towards the end, which is to promote their own new super smartphone. In conclusion, we are able to see how advertisements that allude to others are able to deeper layers of meaning, if the person is unable to make the connection there is still a message, however, if the person sees the connection between the original and the borrowed text then it increases the impact