Adobe Begins Ad Campaign Against Apple’s Locked-Down Platforms

It was only a matter of time. Adobe, along with its new-found stance against Apple’s policies, has created a new ad campaign to shine some light on how the maker of the popular iPhone and iPad is thwarting choice. The ads appear on select websites and also as full-page ads in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The point of the ad is to highlight Apple’s ban on Flash and other tools that could improve Web life.

The ads are a little subtle at first, until you dig deep. All of the ads I’ve seen so far start with a “WE <3 APPLE” all in bold, large fonts. On the flip-side of the ad, or down lower on print ads, Adobe riddles off what it loves, some of which include, “We love creativity”, “We love apps”, “We love touch screens”, “We love HTML5”, “We love all devices”, “We love all platforms” and so on.

At the bottom, the company’s tone is changed to state, “What we don’t love is anybody taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it, and what you experience on the web.” Even with such wording, this isn’t really much of an attack on Apple as a whole, because after the “We <3 Apple” quote, there’s no direct mention of the company at all. This may leave many unfamiliar with the situation to hop over to a special page that Adobe has set up, linked to below.

On that page is a link to an “open letter” co-written by Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, co-founders of Adobe, and one thing said that I appreciate is this, “No company – no matter how big or how creative – should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.“. I couldn’t agree more. Consumers should have a choice, it’s that simple. Not just with Apple, but with all mobile devices and other personal computers.

What good these ads will do we’re not sure, but we hope that they’ll do well to get the word out. It’s clear that Apple creates some of the best mobile devices on the market, but by limiting its customer’s choice of what can be done on the device is a little disheartening. If Apple doesn’t change its ways, it may only be a matter of time before customers are fed up and move over to the competitor where choice is far more open.

At Adobe, we believe that the open flow of creativity, ideas, and information should be limited only by the imagination. Innovation thrives when people are free to choose the technologies that enable them to openly express themselves and access information where and when they want. Everyone loses when technological barriers impede the exchange of ideas.