Cultural Relevance: Apple’s ‘Unhinged’ TikToks Are Weird by Design

The posts may look chaotic, but Apple has spent decades turning creative risk into marketing gold

Apple, the brand that built its identity on “thinking different,” has long been as famous for its advertising as for its products. Just look at the “dancing silhouettes” iPod campaign: bold, minimalist, instantly recognizable—and still one of Apple’s greatest hits. It helped turn the portable music player into a cultural phenomenon.

Oddly enough, when those spots debuted in 2003, they were considered a gamble. Former Apple creative director Ken Segall said Steve Jobs questioned whether the abstract concept was “on brand,” featured the product prominently enough or even explained what the approach was really all about. The gamble paid off: “Silhouettes” became a sensation.

With the recently launched MacBook Neo—Apple’s cheapest laptop yet—the company is once again betting on intrigue over explanation. It does not seem especially worried about being too vague, showing too little of the product or leaving viewers asking, “What am I watching?” After all, that same creative risk helped make “Silhouettes” iconic.

Now, Apple is making that same bet on TikTok, flooding the platform with surreal, oddball videos built to cut through younger users’ fractured attention. The strategy makes sense. Adults ages 25 to 34 are TikTok’s largest age segment, and the Neo is aimed at students and budget-conscious buyers. One of the strangest clips, featuring people with blue hands, sparked comments like “Did Apple get hacked?” and “Apple r u ok?”

@apple 💙🔵🦋🟦💠🌀🩵🔷 @malatalia ♬ original sound – apple

But the confusion is intentional. Apple has even left comments—an unusual move for a brand that typically treats social media as a one-sided conversation. And the chaos is not random. Each bizarre visual maps back to a Neo color. We see blue hands for indigo, a lime FaceTiming a lemon for citrus and a tiny pink compact shaped like a MacBook for blush. It may look “unhinged,” but every visual is carefully calculated.

@apple

hello?

♬ original sound – apple

Apple did not become Apple by playing it safe, nor did it build a 50-year legacy on blandness. For decades, the company has embraced “Think Different,” casting itself as the creative, rebellious alternative to conventional computing and corporate tech culture. Its advertising made that identity unforgettable.

“Silhouettes” may be one of Apple’s most recognizable campaigns, but it was no fluke. Apple has spent decades producing award-winning advertising: 2007’s “Get a Mac” won the Grand Effie; “Think Different” earned the 1998 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial; and Ridley Scott’s “1984” did more than stun viewers during Super Bowl XVIII—it won a Cannes’ Grand Prix and later entered the Clio Awards Hall of Fame.

So, as Apple once put it, “here’s to the crazy ones”—a fitting sign-off for a brand still turning creative risk into cultural relevance.