If you're the type who fears change, brace yourself, because it's been a long time coming... or, uh, going. We're talking about "Think different," Apple's marketing slogan that first turned up on a Stevenote slide months before it finally graced the airwaves as the tag to the black and white feel-good minute of the nineties. Readers over at MacNN note that while Apple hasn't outwardly killed the phrase yet, the company has been downplaying its use lately-- what was once the rallying cry for Apple's struggle back from the brink of financial collapse is now apparently completely missing from Apple's current iMac, iBook, and PowerBook brochures. What's more, while the recent iPod commercial (and, as far as we can remember, every other Apple commercial since late 1997) finishes with the "Think different" tagline, Apple's newest iPhoto spot doesn't. Wuh-oh.

Granted, that little slogan's been worked practically to death for over four years now, so it probably deserves to be put out to stud in a sunny field somewhere, where it can live out the rest of its life happily spawning lots of little ad slogans. Still, we're sad to see it go; we've always had a soft spot for the phrase that encapsulated the Macintosh attitude and experience in just two words. And the fact that it played such a large role in Apple's rebound just makes it all the more special. What can we say? That original "Think different" ad still chokes us up-- sue us, we're old softies. Plus, despite that fact that it suggests what to think and not how to think, we always loved the way certain people went completely apoplectic over its alleged rampant ungrammaticality. We take a certain perverse delight in anything that makes teachers squirm; must be a revenge thing.

For what it's worth, "Think different" was about getting Apple back in the public eye-- it was a cry of defiance by a company on the edge of the abyss. Perhaps it's not entirely appropriate for a company that now needs to project an image not of rebellion, but of reliability and simplicity. The rebels are already on board; it's the normal folks that Apple needs to recruit now.

Old ad slogans never die, they just fade away... and Apple seems content to let "Think different" fade gracefully and without fanfare. That's for the best, we suppose, though we can't help but feel it deserves a bigger sendoff somehow. Then again, this isn't the first time we've heard that "Think different" was on the way out, so maybe it'll stick around in some form for a while, yet. Whether it does or not, though, it'll always have a home in the hearts and minds of the Crazy Ones.