The newest Get A Mac, ad from Apple will take over the front page of a number of sites this month. Created by TBW\Media Arts Lab, the ad takes over the page as PC chases switchers through various switcher-cam displays.

Thanks to Ivan for sending it in, and Ads of the World for hosting it.

Update: As our loyal commenters have pointed out, Gizmodo (which was among the first sites to report that Clow was changing roles, echoing a piece in the industry journal Advertising Age) has followed up with an internal email from Clow where he says Miller's promotion does not imply that Clow is stepping away from his own leadership role with the company, including "keeping an eye on Apple."

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When many people think of Apple, they think of the ad campaigns that the company has used over the years:

• The original "1984" Super Bowl ad that introduced the Mac to the world
• The "Think Different" campaign that coincided with the return of Steve Jobs to the company
• The iPod dancing silhouettes
• "There's an app for that" -- the iPhone ads
• "Hello, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC." -- the Get A Mac ads

Apple's advertising agency is TBWA / Media Arts Lab, and the person who has been the creative force behind all of these ads is a man by the name of Lee Clow. The 66 year-old Clow has decided to step down as chief creative officer at the agency, although he'll remain chairman and global director of Media Arts Lab and fulfill other roles within TBWA.

Clow's replacement is no stranger to Apple. Duncan Milner is currently the executive creative director on the Apple account and is considered by many in the advertising industry to be the perfect replacement for Clow, a close friend of Steve Jobs.

Shazam is one of the first apps I actually used in context on the iPhone, and while we haven't heard much about the app since it debuted way back in the early days of the App Store, apparently the company itself has been blowing up, thanks to the free app. They've picked up a nice round of investment from venture capitalists, and the service itself now boasts over 50 million users (by comparison, Last.fm claims only 30 million, but they've gotten way more press than Shazam's service, including recent integration on Xbox Live). That's a heck of an achievement, and Apple is a huge part of it -- not only did Shazam make a big splash on their iPhone app, but they say that Apple actually helped connect the VCs and the company together. That's an interesting peek behind the scenes at what Apple is doing for one of the App Store's oldest and most popular free apps.

As for why Shazam is so popular, the VCs say they can see the platform as a "springboard" for selling music, advertising, and a few other commodities. Currently Shazam's free app only lets you tag five songs a month (a limit I never hit and thus didn't know about, even though I would say that I do use the app regularly), but they're planning a paid version that will allow unlimited identification of songs through the iPhone's microphone. I don't know how well that will sell (it's hard to believe that people will pay $5 for a service they are already using for free, though perhaps I'm underestimating the amount of music that people want to "tag"), but it's clear that Shazam is a company that is making the absolute best of having an extremely popular free app on the App Store.

Continuing its creative interactive blitz on high profile websites, Apple has begun placement of a new iPod touch ad on ESPN.com. Like the ad on IGN, which fellow TUAW-er Josh Carr recently featured, the ad on ESPN.com showcases a variety of games that interact with and shake up the site's menu. Unlike previous iPod touch ads on ESPN.com, which featured a mix of both sports and non-sports games, this campaign is sports oriented: for example, Madden 10 (US$9.99) [iTunes link] and Homerun Battle 3D (US$4.99) iTunes link] are shown as the ad passes through the NFL and MLB sections of the site. Game on!

In the UK, iPhone and iPod touch users who are used to hearing Apple's "there's an app for that" tagline in advertisements are now doing a double-take when they go to their nearby Subway sandwich shop.

Sharp-eyed TUAW reader Welby McRoberts was accompanying some buddies to Subway for lunch when he noticed that things seemed a little too familiar. As you can see in the photos from Welby's blog that are also in the gallery below, Subway UK is using the similar phrase "We've got a sub for that" in their in-store signage and on employee shirts.

McRoberts notes that "It appears that subway are imitating Apple's "there's an app for that". It turns out that this campaign has been done by McCann Erickson and is a 'light-hearted' campaign complete with UK TV adverts. The phrase Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery comes to mind."

There's no word on whether this campaign will migrate to any of the other 90 countries with Subway franchisees, or if Apple is going to refer to the fabled iTablet as a "Five-Hundred Dollar Foot Long." Chuck and the CIA should be very happy with this new campaign!

What can I say? White background, disembodied finger and digi-creepy stillness of the device... the Bell [Canada] version of an ad for the Palm Pre looks hilariously like an iPhone ad. View the videos and judge for yourself. Then get a Pre if you are compelled to do so. It has maps and Twitter and you can touch and rotate and slide it.

Bell version

and an iPhone ad

Spooky, isn't it? Of course, there are only so many ways to illustrate the feature set of a multi-touch smartphone, aren't there? It's like when Newhart was sued by the guy who also wrote a handyman book. There are, in fact, only so many ways to explain how to nail a nail, Dick explains. Lucky us, all smartphone ads will now follow this format, making it much easier to determine which phone is best for us. Thanks, Bell!

[thanks to Philip Lam for the tip!]

Update: And here's an iPhone ad's audio on top of the Bell/Pre ad. Note the flow and that "how cool is that?" pops up at a cosmically opportune moment.

Here's a post for everyone awaiting the mythical "iTablet." The Sierra Sun is reporting that Apple recently shot a television ad for an unreleased product at the Truckee, California restaurant Jax on the Tracks. The Sun quotes Jax owner Bud Haley as saying that Apple wanted "...to show [the restaurant] as a hip and cool spot for the 20-something crowd." Additionally, there was a ban on all third-party photography during the shoot (of course).

We should note that we're pushing the 3rd week of August, and Apple typically releases new iPods in September. Who buys iPods? Well, 20-something college kids, among others. Share your theories in the comments, but we're going to play it safe and guess that Apple is gearing up for a back-to-school iPod promotion.

[Via MacNN]

While some of Microsoft's recent ad campaigns have fallen flat, like the Jerry Seinfeld and "I'm A PC" ads, the "PC Hunter" series has struck a chord with consumers and, it would seem, Apple.

AdAge is reporting on the aftermath of Microsoft COO Kevin Turner gloating about getting a call from Apple's lawyers asking them to stop running the 'Laptop Hunters' Mom/Lauren ad because it inaccurately represented Apple's pricing. Guess what: Microsoft has since run an altered version of the ad.

In the original, Lauren (not that Lauren) is after a laptop with "...speed, portability and battery life for under $1,700." Here you go, Lauren. While shopping, she says, "This Mac is $2,000, and that's before adding anything." In the current version (see video after the break), she simply says "It seems like you're paying a lot for the brand," but mentions no actual price.

Lauren ends up with a 13-inch, $972 Dell XPS. When the ad began to run, Apple had not yet announced the 13-inch MacBook Pro, so the Dell was compared to the more expensive 15-inch model. Since then, Apple released the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,199. Hence Microsoft's having to alter the copy of the ad.

Of course, if you equip the XPS to match the 13-inch MBP, it eliminates nearly all cost difference as well as Apple-exclusive features like the 7-hour battery life. And, you know, Mac OS X.

There are two take-aways here. First, women named Lauren love PCs. Second, if you advertise that your stuff is all cheap crap, don't be surprised when your revenues drop 17%. Pricing sends a message that consumers hear loud and clear. The CDs in the discount bin at Sam Goody are no different than the full-priced ones, but consumers perceive them as less desirable. Small wonder, then, that nine out of every $10 spent on $1K+ "premium" laptops at retail goes into Apple's pocket.

[Via Electronista]

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft marketing and promotion. The Seinfield/Gates ads left my scratching my head, and the Laptop Hunter ads really irritated me.

Now Microsoft has released a really clever marketing video, but apparently had to leave their regular (Mac loving) agency behind.

The video, called Microsoft Office 2010-The Movie (YouTube link) was made by Dennis Liu of Traffik Filmworks (we interviewed him last year). He had a free hand and a big checkbook, and the video that resulted is hip, clever, and fun to watch. We even get a quick glance of Clippy's grave.

I was beginning to think that Microsoft was suffering from a complete humor bypass, but this shot at building expectations and mindshare for Office 2010 is a sure winner.

And remember that Microsoft will offer a free, web based stripped down version sometime next year that supports the Mac on Safari or on FireFox.

Now what happened to Microsoft Bob?

Videro is one of those silent-but-cool application suites you've probably never heard of, but you may see it being used every day. I met some of the Videro team at WWDC, and they were happy to demo a little of what the tools do: electronic signage and interactive kiosks. If you happen to need an animated in-store (or museum) display, fed from a server, easy to set up and deploy, complete with iPhone access to check on the servers (so they say), then Videro is an impressive tool.

To start, Videro has a composition tool that allows you to drag and drop your animations, complete with images, video and audio. In fact, Videro has extensive in-app tools for cropping, rotating and otherwise "fixing" your assets for display. But wait, there's more! This isn't just Keynote all gussied up. Videro is designed for business, and a server application makes sure mission-critical displays are functioning properly. There's solid asset management support both in the client and the server applications, making sure your displays never fire off with a dreaded "black box of nothing" where a product shot should be.

Videro mentioned an iPhone app in the video but I have been unable to locate it in the store and a search on their website revealed nothing. Still, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to provide some baseline stats via password-protected web app. We weren't able to get Wi-Fi at our location, so some features weren't visible and this might have been one of them.

Unfortunately Videro's site mentions nothing about price. In my experience that means we're talking about an expensive solution, and likely a custom one for the high-end customers. If you're looking for something simpler, don't miss Dave's excellent post about using Keynote and Dropbox to create an updating and easy presentation solution that would work in a pinch.

In a display of environmental posturing on both sides, Dell lodged a complaint with the advertising industry's self-governing oversight board: The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD). The claim? When Apple says it has the "world's greenest family of notebooks," family could be taken to mean all models of MacBook past and present -- including models that weren't built with the environment in mind.

"Common industry usage of 'family' refers to a particular model or group of models, and not the entire notebook line," argued Dell, according to a post on the New York Times' "Green Inc." blog. Dell also complained about Apple's use of gold EPEAT ratings -- an award that many of Apple's competitors have also earned.

Standing behind their claim, Apple effectively said, "that's right, deal with it": Family, in the context of the ad "refers to its whole line of notebooks, taken in toto, [and] not a particular model or group."

The NAD said there was no problem with Apple communicating its EPEAT ratings to consumers, and commended the company for its commitment to creating an entire line of notebooks that meet the highest EPEAT ratings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Even so, the NAD suggested that consumers could believe that "family" means a line of products (and not all the products) that a company makes. They recommended that Apple use direct comparisons between MacBooks and competitor notebooks to clarify their claims of environmental friendliness. They also recommended that Apple avoid the use of world's greenest "given the potential for overstatement." Apple? Overstatement? That's unpossible.

Apple was happy with the conclusion, with PR spokesman Steve Dowling telling the New York Times that the NAD had confirmed that MacBooks are indeed the world's greenest notebooks when compared to other manufacturers' entire product lines. It appears that Apple has taken to using the word "lineup" instead of "family" on its website.

Dell issued a statement, saying they "commend the NAD for their part in helping ensure companies represent their products' environmental attributes accurately." Dell has previously lodged advertising complaints against Lenovo, and last year the company had to stop using the slogan "the world's most secure notebooks."

Adutainment, the art of mixing advertising and entertainment, has been popular in the iPhone app space since the App Store first opened. Grooming product giant Gillette has teamed with developer AIM Proximity on a fun little free app called uArt (click opens iTunes). uArt is the iPhone app equivalent of drawing mustaches and beards on pictures of people in magazines...not that I've ever done that...

You provide the photo, taking a shot of yourself or a friend with the iPhone camera, or importing a picture from Photos. After sizing and placing the photo with a pinch and a finger swipe, you can begin to have fun with the full beard that appears on the photo. A single control makes the beard and mustache go from sparse to bushy, while another control lets you apply the digital equivalent of "Just for Men" to the facial hair in 12 different colors and shades.

Now comes the really fun part: touching the shave button on the bottom of the screen brings up a virtual Gillette Fusion razor (it vibrates!) that you can use to trim or remove parts of the hair. Now you can see just how good or bad you'd look with a Fu Manchu. There's a way to save your work of tonsorial art and even give it a name before sending it to your friends.

Personally, I'm holding out for Rogaine® to sponsor a free hair-growing app. Be sure to check out the rogue's gallery of famous TUAW personalities below.

Thanks to Ivan for the tip!

Imagine this scenario: you're watching the latest episode of "Mythbusters" on the Discovery Channel when an ad for Nationwide Insurance appears. Are they trying to sell you insurance? Of course, but they're also touting their new Nationwide Mobile (click opens iTunes) iPhone app, which Nationwide policyholders can use to report accidents, start claims, and find local agents or repair shops.

Later, you're watching NBA playoff action and you see an ad for E*TRADE that catches your attention. It's not that you want to lose more money in the stock market, but you're fascinated because the ad is talking about the E*TRADE Mobile Pro app for the iPhone. Banks have been doing iPhone apps for a while, with Chase and Bank of America taking the lead.

Are you beginning to see a trend here? Sure, maybe a handful of ads doesn't make a trend, but more and more companies are delivering apps that provide a mobile solution for their customers, and then advertising that iPhone-based solution to a wider audience on TV. Why? The iPhone, despite being on the market for two years, is still considered to be leading-edge technology, and it has an unparalleled "cool factor". Any company wanting to show that it's cool and on top of current mobile technology is going to jump on the iPhone connection.

I wouldn't expect to see any Microsoft apps for iPhone soon. What apps and related ads would you like to see?

Update: Thanks to the many readers who pointed out that there are two Microsoft apps available: Seadragon Mobile and Microsoft Tag Reader. Of course, I seriously doubt if they're going to tout either of these apps in a TV ad.

Additionally, we've seen a DirectTV ad that shows a customer interacting with the service via his iPhone. They're not promoting the mobile app or the iPhone, just using it in a matter-of-fact way. Interesting.

Microsoft's latest advertising campaign, while more stimulating than the Seinfeld/Gates spots, has one goal and one goal only: sell PCs. Microsoft's endgame, it seems, is to persuade people into purchasing Windows-running PCs by leveraging the fact that Macs are more expensive than PCs.

I'm not going to get into this argument because a) it's been done before, and b) the answer always comes out with just a little bias. In my opinion, the hardware comes out costing the same (with negligible differences) no matter how you run the numbers. What I would rather discuss is how Microsoft is making its attack and what it is actually doing to help Apple.

Mobclix has been providing an impressive amount of usage information to iPhone developers for only about six months now, but have already made it into the 2008 TechCrunch 50, won SeedCamp 2008, and been recognized as a leading provider of metrics and analytics reporting. According to Mobclix, 75% of the applications in which the analytics are implemented have made the Top 100 Free App list. When TechCrunch reported on Mobclix shortly after they launched in September of 2008, it was noted that "more aggregate data would be welcome." Well, that wish has been granted.

Mobclix announced a major upgrade to their analytics and yield optimization advertising system for iPhone (and other mobile) app developers today.

For the end user, it may come across as a little scary. Beyond just standard usage statistics, developers can create unlimited metrics, gathering information on everything from favorite colors to what level you last conquered in their game. The data is all gathered anonymously, and your consent is required, so don't worry about Big Brother yet. The benefit to the average user of ad-supported iPhone applications is that highly targeted advertising may actually yield a connection between the user and a vendor in whom they'd actually be interested. Mobclix also provides an in-app comment system to directly connect users with developers, providing feedback which is exponentially more useful than App Store comments.