Here's an intellectual rebel who apparently won't be the next poster boy for Apple Computer's "Think different" ad campaign: America's late, leading Satanist.
Apple Computer Inc, which gained fame with its iconoclastic marketing, has told the Church of Satan it does not want to be associated with it, the group said.
The "Think different" slogan had until recently adorned a picture of Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey, on the group's Web site, but was pulled along with a "Made with Macintosh" Web badge at the request of the computer company, the group said.
LaVey, a former circus lion tamer, founded the San Francisco-based church in 1967, earning the diabolical nickname "Black Pope" by doing everything from officiating a Satanic wedding to playing Satan in Roman Polanski's film, "Rosemary's Baby."
Webmaster Peter Gilmore, who also serves as "High Priest" for the group, built the site, (http://www.churchofsatan.com), on a Macintosh but said he abandoned all hope for using the trademark in February after a lengthy exchange with Apple's lawyers.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment in any way on the matter.
"I guess Apple didn't like the idea that somebody called the Church of Satan's support was a good thing," Gilmore told Reuters. "It's really discrimination."
Apple had reserved the right to stop use of its trademarks on Web pages in poor taste or disparaging to Apple, according to the letter he attributed to the company's lawyers.
The company did not specify what it objected to on the site, but the small group could not afford an expensive court battle with the big software company, Gilmore said.
"This exchange has definitely soured us on some of the taste of Apple," Gilmore wrote.
He also said Apple had a bit of the devil in it, interpreting the bite taken out of the Apple trademark as a reference to the Biblical story of the first bite from the fruit of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, proffered by - an incarnation of the devil.
"They want to dance, but their feet won't let them," Gilmore said, quoting an earlier LaVey remark.