Grammar Rant

adjective/adverb confusion

Target: Apple Computer Problem: Apple Catchphrase "Think Different" 
Grammar Violation: part of speech error
EXPLANATION: What Apple has been saying for years, with the “Think Different” campaign, is that you should simply have the one-word thought “different” running through your head: that your thoughts should be constantly overdubbed with a simple “different, different, different” mantra. Since Apple has been using this phrase for years, apparently you should have wasted quite a portion of your life just thinking “different, different, different …,” thinking of the word “different” itself.  If Apple actually mean that you should think, for example, about a different spreadsheet, or a different website (presuming that the Apple product will help you to make something different from the usual product of this type), then they mean to use “different” as an adjective.  But an adjective, to be logical, must refer to a noun or pronoun that can be different.  An adjective modifies (which means describes) a noun or pronoun, and it can’t modify an entire sentence or situation.
CORRECTION: What Apple means to say is that you should think differently, as in, think with new patterns.  Apple wants your actual thinking to happen in a different way, so they should use “differently” to modify the verb “think.”  An adverb says to do a certain action (verb) in a certain way.  This is the meaning that Apple must intend, and if so, they need the adverb form “differently.”
MITIGATING FACTORS, IF ANY: There is no excuse for Apple’s error.  They can’t claim that they were being clever or that they didn’t have enough time to use the proper words or that the audience is too stupid to understand the correct form.  These are the usual excuses, but none apply here: the space differential is insignificant; the phrase has been in use for a long time and began with a massive campaign, not a spur-of-the-moment statement; and the average computer user is intelligent enough to read the correct form just as well as the incorrect form. Of course, even when these excuses of cleverness or time limitations or audience ignorance do apply, the grammar error should be avoided, but in this case there really is no excuse whatever, no mitigating factor.
RANT: Unfortunately, this “catchy” usage pattern by Apple, nonsensical as it is, has spawned other command-line advertising catchphrases with grammatical errors.  I was signing a charge slip in a Renaissance Hotel when I noticed that the tag line on the pen, under the logo, was “Stay Interesting.”  Evidently, the Renaissance fears that you are about to become a bore.  Perhaps, if you do, they simply do not want you around their classy hotels.  Holiday Inn Express has an even lower opinion of you; they feel that they must warn you to “Stay Smart.”  Apparently, you aren’t quite smart enough, and you might even become stupid, if Holiday Inn Express didn’t remind you to stay smart.  We’ll talk more about these examples and how they could be corrected in future podcasts.  In the meantime, please, vote with your dollar.  The students of today are confused when they hear poor English out of the mouths of professionals.  Please insist on higher standards from our corporate citizens, and please have some fun doing it!