What's Written On iOS' Paper Emojis Pays Homage To Classic Apple Commercials

Over the past several decades, computers and mobile devices have continued to change the way we work, shop and live. They have also changed the way we communicate, with instant messaging and texting making it easier than ever to touch base with others. Those modes of communication have, of course, also led to the development of a specific messaging shorthand, a concept tech companies have taken even further with the advent of emojis.

These days, there is pretty much an emoji for any thought, feeling, or occasion you can imagine. That includes the emoji for paper or memos that Apple's IOS uses in its ever-evolving iPhones. If you're unfamiliar with the emoji, it features a sharpened pencil laying on top of a sheet of paper. Those who know the emoji have almost certainly noted that there are a few words written on the emoji's paper as well. While they may initially appear to be just illegible scribbles, a closer inspection reveals that they are not only actual words, but have a specific meaning in the history of Apple, as they are lifted from one of the tech outfit's most memorable commercials. 

That ad would serve as the launching point for what came to be known as the "Think Different" campaign. If you're curious about what's written, the words read like this, "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of..."

Apple's products have ranked among the most innovative to hit the consumer tech arena in the past few decades, but one could argue that the company has been every bit as innovative when it comes to marketing those gadgets. In fact, Apple has released some of the most revered ad campaigns in history since its founding.

As for the ad that fronted the "Here's to the crazy ones" dialogue, it was the first of Apple's "Think Different" campaign, and began airing in 1997. If you know the ad, you know it doesn't cut things off where the emoji does, continuing, "They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

There are actually two versions of the ad, one narrated by legendary actor Richard Dreyfuss, and one by Apple founder Steve Jobs. They're also read over images of some of history's greatest athletes, thinkers and artists, including Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammed Ali, and Pablo Picasso, to name a few. The crux of the ad was that Apple's iconic devices were designed for revolutionaries. Little did they know that those products would soon be used by the bulk of the tech-loving world.