Chocolate? Roses? Champagne? No. Give your lover a $629 inscribed iPad this Valentine's Day

THIN. Beautiful. Magical. Is there anything the iPad isn't? Now they say it's a Valentine's gift.

iPad

THIN. Beautiful. Magical. Musical. Professional. Playful. Scientific. Historic. Literary. Artistic.

Is there anything the iPad isn't?

Not according to Apple's marketing team who, having worn out the dictionary, are now trying to flog the iPad as a replacement for chocolate.

The world's trendiest electronics company this week launched a campaign to encourage the iPad as a Valentine's Day gift.

"They'll fall in love again and again," say promotional emails sent to Australian customers.

"This Valentine's Day, give the one and only iPad."

And if you're the sort of person who can find $629 but not the words to match, Apple's got you covered.

A free personal engraving service will see your loved one's iPad emblazoned with a statement of love to make the angels weep.

For example: "I'm all yours. And so is this."

Copywriter and advertising consultant Jane Caro, who has worked for Forbes, Saatchi & Saatchi and JWT, said the campaign was very optimistic.

"The idea of engraving an iPad is a big ask," she said.

"For Valentine's Day, it's a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates, if you're lucky. Mostly you get a red rose, and it's not $500."

In fact, for the same price as the cheapest iPad, you could buy 120 long stem roses, six box sets of the entire Sex and the City series or 54 boxes of Lindt chocolates.

"But Apple are in there giving it a go," Ms Caro said.

"No doubt they'll sell a couple to some very rich people or people that are very much in love, but I don't see as iPads as a Valentine's Day gift."

Todd Sampson, chief executive officer of advertising agency Leo Burnett, said he was less than impressed by the campaign.

"I don't hate the Valentine's work, but I certainly don't love it," he said.

Mr Sampson said the inscription service appeared to be an attempt to counter the feeling Apple products were homogenous and impersonal.

"Apple has taken homogeneity to a new level. Each product is not only beautifully designed and crafted, they are all the same — identical, actually," he said.

"That was fine when Apple was the perceived as niche, but now it's more than mainstream.

"Apple has become the new uniform of rebellion and they need to do something about it — enter personalisation."

However Mr Sampson said the effort may have been misguided, as the idea of personalisation was more native to Apple's biggest rival.

"To me, personalisation is so PC," he said.