Apple iPad

Here some warm subjective camera shots of idealised Apple iPad users according to Apple. Or something like the following proposition:

'Are you a (cultured and well-informed) reader of The Economist, a (cool and up-to-date) Twitter user, a (savvy and enlightened) follower of TED talks and a (maybe nostalgic) friend of books? Are you (do you like to think of yourself as) all or either of the above?
Then you, who enjoy being all these things while sitting leisurely at home or at a trendy and generic café with sofas, wearing brand-new casual clothes, with your nicely air-brushed skin tone…, you must be an iPad person (buyer)'.

By the way, the ads bring an illustrative take on our contemporary cultural landscape, again, according to Apple: the titles of books we like to read (or just buy), e.g. Nineteen Eighty Four (now that’s a surprise); the people we like to listen to, e.g. Jamie Oliver (still?); the issues that we are concerned about (or supposed to be), e.g. climate change; the nothingness we like to spread via Twitter, e.g. a classic: “Just ate the best sandwich. Ever” (!).

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Apple: iPad
Euston Station (LU)
London

We don't do this. So we can afford to do this

Something that particularly struck me when I first observed advertising in Britain was how much it played with the 'cheeky'.

Cheeky as it is, the ad above also presents an interesting self-referential function of the advertising language, acknowledging a significant competence on the part of the public in understanding the way advertising works.

Here the advertisers take advantage of the great appeal that Formula 1 has nowadays without spending a penny in massive sponsoring accounts: the picture of the car gets our attention, even ignites our desire.

Then, they seem to be telling us how because they don't spend huge amounts in that shallow thing which is sponsoring a Formula 1 team, they can give us a better deal on their mobile communications product.

Also, by letting us find the obvious conclusion to their proposed cheeky syllogism, they allow us to feel a bit clever and a bit complicit, a basic tactic for seduction.

All to tell us that basically they'd give us back a 3% of our expenditure on their mobile services, an amount to be spent only on Tesco or affiliated partners, if we decided to let ourselves be enticed by their offer.

So this is what they do.

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Tesco Mobile: We don't do this. So we can afford to do this.
Lascotts Road, N22
London