Last night, Apple released a new ad for iTunes featuring Coldplay. This ad takes the silhouette ads to the max with a beautiful Leopard/space-esqe background and Coldplay singing their new song, Viva la Vida. Once again, this ad was featured during an episode of American Idol, which seems to have been a weekly occurrence through the Idol season.
You can see this video by going to Apple's iPod + iTunes site and scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking "Watch the new TV ad," or you can use the direct link (.mov link).
Apple just released a new "Get a Mac" ad entitled "Sad Song." In this commercial, PC is singing a country inspired song about how Vista saddens him. This commercial was released and played during the American Idol show tonight on the FOX network. You may remember that Apple also released 2 new Get a Mac ads last night. You can watch this and other Get a Mac ads on the Apple website.
When your corporate IT department says "Sure, we like the Mac, but we can't manage it through Group Policy, so it's inherently evil," you can offer several alternatives: Centrify, ADmit Mac, and Likewise (formerly Centeris) -- all will provide smooth integration of your Macs into AD and give the central command and control guys the feeling of power they crave. We caught up with Steve from Likewise on the show floor and got a quick walkthrough. Video after the jump.
Here's the ad for the new iPod Nano, (also available in QuickTime on Apple.com) which I still think doesn't look that great (the Nano, not the ad). I mean yeah, it's super cute and tiny, and it is extremely awesome to have a screen like that (with its 204ppi) playing video on a Nano. But it's just so... stubby and squished.
Still, Apple makes up for it by using the best song off of Feist's latest album, and the video that goes with it. Not quite as iconic (or out-there) as Orba Squara, but it is a great tune.
Mark sent us this silly mockup of a zunePhone that his coworker made, complete with the signature commercial music for the iPhone (which is actually called "Perfect Timing (This Morning)" by Orba Squara, available on an iTS near you). What's up with that hand? Did he actually animate it using stills from the real commercials? If so, A for effort, even if it does end up looking a little strange.
The flashing 12:00 makes me laugh (as does what happens to the Polaroid after it's done developing), but otherwise, this phone is pretty much what you'd expect from Microsoft-- a blatant copy, only done messier, tackier, and much, much later. Good times.
So, say you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Mmmm... Did somebody say, "Calamari?"
Before there was the iPhone, there was iHome. And strangely enough, it worked pretty much the same-- just a little slower, and you could only do it from home, and you had to decide who was going to get the phone book out and look it up. My only question is what exactly he's doing at the beginning. Is he pretending to drive the ship?
Or so says this ad. Mac Rumors isn't sure what the deal is on this either, but this unofficial ad by Alec Sutherland, Anthony Hechanova, and Todd DosSantos is a neat little tribute to both New York and the gadget that's going to take over the world at the end of the month.
And forgive me if I'm reading a little too much into this, but how cool is all of this? It's 2007, and we're going to be walking around carrying little multitouch screens with "no buttons." Say what you will about the whole "Sweet Solution" fiasco, but dude-- we're living the future.
When Apple's Think Different television campaign first aired in September of 1997, the company was in dire straights (or, as we call it, "The Sculley Years"). To make a long and well-known story short, Steve came back, the company launched the enormously popular "Think Different" campaign with Chiat/Day, and that, true believers, was how Apple got its groove back.
LowEndMac takes a very interesting look at the development of that campaign, from the initial concept to the first broadcast commercial in '97. Some interesting facts include that Chiat/Day was given just 17 days to complete the project, and that Steve himself courted some of the people whose images were used.
Well done, Apple and Chiat/Day. We still love those ads.
Microsoft's "The WOW Starts Now!" Vista promotion campaign has taken just about every computer and technology venue by storm. Everyone from the likes of Best Buy to Bob's Computers has at least some kind of hanging banner, floor signage or postcard handouts featuring the mind-numbing array of Vista flavors, but we're curious as to who actually designed all this promo material. Filippo Corti at the Mac Blog (crummy Google translation to English here) snapped this pic which features what must be a MacBook alongside four of the major versions of Vista. Considering that Vista's EULA forbids virtualizing any versions besides Business and Ultimate, this either amounts to a grossly mis-leading advertisement or a fox sly, pro-Apple designer among sheep.
[Update: Right on cue, some debate as to whether this is actually a MacBook or even a piece of Apple hardware at all has ensued. Some eagle-eyed readers have pointed out that the side ports actually say iBook, and we tend to agree. Still, this looks like a piece of iconic Apple hardware, and Microsoft could have made a more distinctive choice.]
Well, this will certainly give you pause. It's a parody non-Apple iPod "ad" cum social commentary (of a sort) from Hot Sauce Academy, "a three-person sketch and improv group from New York's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre." It pretty much speaks for itself, and might make you hide your iPod a bit better when you go out.
Warning: this video is not for the faint of heart and contains a stylized representation of graphic violence.
Many people out there are wondering exactly which movies were featured in the iPhone 'Hello' ad. Thanks to Flickr user el frijole you need wonder no more! They took the time not only to upload a screenshot of each movie (and TV show) scene to Flickr but to also took the time to identify the source of a good percentage of the clips. Check out the set and help identify the remaining unknown clips.
Oh, and in case you were wondering the ad features the song Inside Your Head by Eberg.
Macworld UK has apparently heard it through the grape vine (or apple tree?) that Apple has secured some ad time for the iPhone during tonight's 79th annual Academy Awards ceremony. The proceedings kick off at 8 pm EST on ABC, and the ad was apparently "made for the Oscars," though no more details are available just yet.
I honestly wasn't planning on watching the Oscars, but now I'm hoping that Macworld hasn't gone the way of pageview-baiting because I just fired up the microwave for a jumbo popcorn session. Oh the things we do in the name of TUAW.
I am not one of those Mac people who immediately hates anything from Microsoft, in fact I actually think Vista is a pretty good OS (I've been using it for awhile now on my MacBook Pro). That being said, the latest Get A Mac ad from Apple is right on the money. It is called 'Security' and it features the familiar PC and Mac, but this time the PC has a security guard. The security guard gives the PC a chance to 'cancel or allow' pretty much everything, much like Vista's User Account Control which can be pretty darned annoying.
It is nice to see Apple aggressively taking on Vista, but I would still rather see these commercials highlight features of OS X rather than simply mock Vista (though that has its charms as well).
Apple premiered a new iPod shuffle ad today (I saw it while watching Heroes). There are no dancers in sight, in fact all you see are torsos putting on different pieces of clothes and attaching an iPod shuffle to them. All of this whilst Who's Gonna Sing? by The Prototypes is playing in the background. The ad ends with the slogan, 'Put some music on.' Oh, so clever Apple!
Even the great Mr. Dylan is getting in on the iPod promo fun, as a new iPod ad featuring the man himself has been posted on Apple's site. This particular iPod ad seems to break away from the norm, featuring a non-silhouetted Dylan, a plain white background and a dancer + iPod. It's also a promotion for Bob's new album, Modern Days (iTMS link), which we blogged a while back (that mega box set, titled The Collection, is also now available - iTMS link).
In fact, in the same vein of this ad's breakaway theme, it doesn't even look that good. The white is an ugly off-white, and they might as well have made Bob a silhouette - given that the lighting on him is so crummy. The guy may be a little older these days, but he's still an icon, y'know?
Either way, it's nice to see a truly influential cultural figurehead like Bob Dylan receiving the iTunes + iPod love.