"Introducing iPad. It's the best way to experience the web, email, photos and video. All on a big, beautiful Multi-Touch screen. With just the touch of a finger."
This video is one of the first commercials aired for the iPad by Apple.
From first viewing I find it to be clean and smooth and bright, much like the product itself. The narrator has no distinctive accent and is well spoken. It starts by immediately asking what the viewer wants to know..."What is iPad?" This grabs your attention, and you are then told that "iPad is thin. iPad is beautiful" followed by an onscreen map featuring L.A. Apple may have thought that this opening line would appeal to the American population because, who doesn't want something thin and beautiful? Media already puts pressure on certain people when it comes to this subject and Apple is using that. They are also trying to point out that the iPad is something glamorous and sought after by linking it to L.A. It may also be useful to note that the first ever iPad commercial was aired during the Academy Awards, again linking this product to the 'elite' of society.
The viewer is then shown fairly rapidly some of the things that this gadget can do.
It tries to appeal to as many people as possible by showing a good range of apps from viewing films and photos, sending emails, reading books and playing musical instruments. "200,000 apps and counting." They tell you that you "already know how to use it" immplying that it is just an extension of your everyday life, even when it comes to reading Winnie the Pooh with your child. iPad can do all the things you usually do and enjoy and they are all in one place at the same time. Want to play the piano when you aren't at home? You can, because the iPad is lightweight and portable and has an app for that!
The advert makes you think of reasons you need it, that you didn't even know you could think of. Most people would think buying a paper would be a perfectly fine way to read the news, but after seeing this you then may question that decision and think that reading The New York Times on the iPad is much more convienient.
People today are always looking for ways to make life easier or to save time and in this advert the answer is simple: buy an iPad.
When you watch it again and pay attention to the surroundings and not the product itself, it becomes apparent that despite showing the different range of apps for all different people, iPad is actually aimed at a target demographic. Presumably 'middle class' professionals, those who are possibly better educated and are again like the advert and the product, clean cut. You can tell this from the clothes that the iPad users are wearing, there isn't anyone who seems overally casual. Nobody wearing hoodies or typical teenage clothing, they are all wearing neat and tidy attire that you might associate with wealthier people if stereotyping.
It can also be seen through the environments: someone is in a cafe, others are in the workplace, one man is on the fire escape to a city apartment, and a woman is taking a break from shopping. Shopping that she was doing with a wicker type bag, not the normal/common plastic and paper bags. The homes featured are modern and chic, they are homes that look expensive and very tasteful. Like the iPad.
Although considering the price and the fact that it is made by Apple, it is not surprising that they wouldn't be marketing their products at the average American. Especially as the first word to describe iPad when you look it up is, "magical." Something that is magical, isn't going to come cheaply.
Another way it would seem that they are not targeting everybody, is by the particular apps they have chosen. It would seem at first to be a wide variety, something to everyone but in fact it seems aimed at possibly more educated people. Those who would want access to "more books than you can read in a lifetime" and those using it for presentations and business purposes, as well as highlighting many apps of a scientific nature.
The commercials for any Apple product always end with their logo, a logo that people have come to trust because of the success of the Mac, iPod and the iPhone. Throughout the advert the camera switches to the logo so that you cannot forget who is responsible for this new and innovative gadget. Apple.
If you want to see the history of Apple, it can be found here: http://www.apple-history.com/
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