The folks hanging around the AtAT office aren't particularly fond of most award shows. Sure, beauty pageants are always a hoot and a holler, especially when everyone clustered around the TV arrives at the conclusion that none of the entrants is particularly engaging. Most MTV awards shows are entertaining in a garish, "Beavis and Butthead" sort of sensibility. And the Oscars are always a must-see, if only to check out what everyone's wearing. Other than those, though, we tend to steer clear; none of the others can really capture and hold our ridiculously short attention spans.

However, we just may have to tune in to this year's Emmy awards in September, because TBWA Chiat/Day (Steve Jobs' "ad agency of choice") has just been nominated in the "outstanding commercial" category for its "Think Different" ad. There are more details over at MacCentral. We weren't even aware that there were Emmys for commercials-- which shows you just how much we know about this stuff-- but we're very pleased that "Think Different" has been nominated.

The interesting thing we've noticed about the original sixty-second "Think Different" spot is just how much it grows on people. When we first saw it, our reaction was pretty much, "That's all?" After all, it was the first real Apple commercial in years, and it was made by the same superstars who crafted Apple's "1984" commercial to introduce the Macintosh. A bunch of grainy stock footage of "crazy people" hardly seemed up to snuff. Indeed, AtAT viewers ranked the commercial a B- on average (2.36 out of 5), with most of the positive feedback about it being, "well, at least it's an Apple commercial!" In fact, 23% of respondents actually felt that the commercial would hurt Apple instead of helping. But now, every time we see the thing, we're amazed at just how much it touches us, because it's true-- in general, those who choose Macintosh are choosing quality over mediocrity, at a time when mediocrity is staggeringly widespread. And while we can't speak for the rest of the Mac-using community, we're perfectly happy (and yes, even proud) to be among the crazy ones. Good luck to Chiat/Day!