Apple Launches New iPad 2 Ad: “We Believe,” A Reminder of Its History of Innovation

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iPad2

Apple launched its new ad campaign for the iPad 2 Saturday based on its founding philosophy of bringing technology to the masses.

Of course, this latest ad “We Believe” is all about how the iPad is about the experience, and not just the technology, which is of course what makes it such a success with everyone from toddlers to technophobes.

“When technology gets out of the way, everything becomes more delightful — even magical,” says the guy in the voiceover. “That’s when you leap forward. That’s when you end up with something like this.”

What’s so profoundly interesting about the spot, the product, and the idea is how Apple has managed to stay on top of that vision and to remain on the leading edge of redefining the concept of personal computing decades after its founding.

If you know anything about the history of computing, the idea of “personal computing” really was revolutionary at the time Apple’s started off in 1976. Thus one of the primary jobs that Apple faced was to upend broad cultural perceptions.

So it’s fascinating to see this ad for the iPad 2 27 years after Apple’s groundbreaking “1984” ad, and to review these thoughts by Ogilvy & Mather Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Steve Hayden, its creator:

The intention was to remove people’s fears of technology at a time when owning your own computer made about as much sense as owning your own cruise missile. We wanted to democratize technology, telling people that the power was now literally in their hands.

Amazing. Here they are again, changing perceptions in the “post PC” world.

And this time around, the power literally is in people’s hands.

 

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