Lennon in TV ad 28 years after his death

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imagine, John Lennon makes a television commercial for charity -- 28 years after his death.

Through the use of digital technology, the former Beatle urges people across the United States to support a campaign by "One Laptop per Child" to deliver tough, solar-powered XO laptop computers to the world's poorest children.

"Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want," a voice and video image of Lennon has been created to say.

"I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world," says the musician in a play on one his best known songs -- 1971's "Imagine."

Lennon was shot and killed as he and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrived at their Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980.

Ono approved the "One Laptop per Child" commercial, which was launched on Thursday and will be shown on donated broadcast and cable time. It can also be seen at www.youtube.com/olpc.

The "One Laptop per Child" Foundation, created in 2005, is a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and started producing the XO laptop late last year at a manufacturing cost per machine of less than $200.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Sandra Maler)