Apple File Icon Misquotes Think Different Ad Campaign

Apple’s iconic Think Different ad campaign starts with these lines:

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 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.

Apple pays homage to this ad throughout its product line, including quotes in app icons. For example, an old version of the TextEdit icon featured the opening lines.

Unfortunately, an icon used in the past to indicate .txt files, as shown on a page of Apple’s human-interface guidelines, misquotes the ad. It drops the word “them” at the end:

I’ve added the red mark to point out the missing word.

Here’s the Quote Checker diff comparing the quote from the icon to the original text:

Another problem with the icon is its inconsistency about hiding text behind the earmark. It hides “crazy ones” but then doesn’t hide “The rebels.”

The most recent preview icon (pictured on the left here) corrects both mistakes.

However, Apple’s receipt emoji, which pays homage to the ad as well, currently speaks of square pegs and round holes. But the ad spoke of round pegs in square holes. Unless the makers of this emoji were honoring the ad’s rebellious message by defying it, this is another mistake: