I would imagine its a "real-life" ad of how to use the iPod touch/iPhone. Maybe a cool app that they wanted to show in a real setting. As great as the current ads are, none of them seem very REAL.
This is probably an ad for the new iPod touch with camera, showing off the fact of taking a picture of some "cool" place to eat and hang and then posting it to Twitter/Flickr/Facebook.
There is NO WAY that Apple would put the tablet or any unannounced new form factor out in the public light like that. Thing about the iPhone 3G/3Gs commerical, not a single actor in the commercial every saw the device really. They simply acted out scenes and then the device was by itself in a shot with no one in the room.
Only the camera man (possibly didn't need one) and the people who editted the shot/the director actually probably saw the thing or even knew what they were advertising.
Going with that, do you really think that Apple would put the tablet or unannounced product out in public that this? I don't think so.
They did it in November 1983, with the original Mac. An all-day shoot was done in our Computer store showing a couple buying an Original Mac.
The shoot was during normal business hours, so the glass windows and doors were papered-over so no one could see in. The doors were locked, so Customers were met outside, by our employees, for any necessary business transactions: (sales, questions, repairs, etc.). Response from the "locked-out" customers was very positive (vicarious excitement to be aware that an exciting new product was coming?).
Store employees were used as background extras (sales people, customers, clerks). Scenes showed:
-- a young couple entering the store
-- couple given a demo of the Mac
-- couple purchasing Mac at front counter
-- salesman putting Mac into Mac Bag
-- couple leaving store with Mac Bag
These were shot over and over from several angles, with different lighting, background, etc.
AIR, there were 2 Mac computers present, 3 paid actors, about 10 people in the film crew and one "creative" fron Chiat Day.
The product of the shoot was several 5-10 second shots in some 30-60 second ads.
The environment was pretty controlled, but all employees present (about 15) got to see the Mac. I got to play with MacDraw for about 15 minutes.
So,
YES WAY Apple has put a new, revolutionary product in a controlled public environment.
Apple has done it before with a Steve Jobs product!
The only downside, was that the ad was shot almost 2 months before the Mac was announced... Hopefully the computers and software available today can reduce the time to a few days or weeks!
