The iPod Ad's Silhouetted Success

Apple has sold about 250 million tunes from its iTunes Music Store and 10 million iPods. With the release of updated iPod models, Apple has launched a new iPod ad campaign in different national and international magazines, billboards and in the Internet. The new set of iPod ad features a variety of vibrant colors and design schemes with a black silhouetted figure of a person dancing with or simply enjoying an iPod. Cropped versions of these iPod ads can also be seen in updated Apple iPod web pages.

The new style is very different and colorful compared to the usual simple, white advertising they are popular of in the past. The colorful and silhouetted iPod ad campaign of Apple makes the white iPod earphones very recognizable.

An iPod ad is being run by 3 a mobile operator in the United Kingdom. It is the first ever 3G mobile video ad campaign for the Apple iPod. The iPod ad runs for 14 seconds that features the ever famous silhouetted dancers from the brand's campaign concept.

iPod ad has become very popular indeed that in the Simpsons episode entitled "Thank God, It's Doomsday," Homer Simpson noticed in the Gospel for Less shop this iPod type of ad.

On the other hand, the copying of the idea has gone wild as Apple threatens to sue Music Channel Fuse over their new ad campaign that looks just like the iPod ad campaigns. Music Channel Fuse and its owner Cablevision's Rainbow Media are threatened by Apple's lawyers with a lawsuit unless the music channel stops the campaign.

In the similar campaign, figures of people in silhouette are watching while television with the colorful background. The campaign may mirror iPod ad campaign but Fuse takes the idea to a very different direction with one of their ad versions showed a man apparently masturbating while one showed a man doing a beer bong.

Rapper Eminem and Music group Black Eyed Peas also rode with the sucess of iPod ad campaign's bandwagon, as the former was featured in a version of an iPod ad rapping and appearing on screen.

Also, the latter and their song "Hey Mama" from the album "Elephunk" became more popular after the song was used in another iPod ad campaign. The song was selected for the iPod television ad campaign by Apple and the creative team at TWBA Chiat Day. They thought the song was appealing and would definitely attract the attention of the viewers.

Apple ad is also reported lately to be included within iTunes soon. The testing advertisements are sure to lure advertisers interested in reaching million of iTunes users. But, many users are not excited about this because they have been used to an Apple ad free iTunes. As much as the Apple ad will appear only on the lower left corner of the iTunes Library, this can still prove to be risky.

iPod ad in iPod pages, posters, magazines, and billboards have been popping up all over key cities around the world. This also proves that Apple is aggressive with this new iPod ad push.

As a matter of fact, Business 2.0 has included the U2 silhouette iPod ad campaign in its 2005 Smart List. The annual tip of the hat to the brightest minds in business of this magazine has given their nods to Apple in its unique idea of advertising iPod.

The iPod ad was a collaboration of lead singer Bono of U2 and Apple CEO Steve Jobs. They happen to be long time friends who worked closely for this iPod ad campaign. They both contributed to the ad campaign and their efforts in advertising iPod paid of quite well. At the same time, Apple's iTunes Music Store made the exclusive release of U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

With the success of the iPod campaign, the album also hit the charts for weeks after its debut in November 2005.