iPod Commercials and the Music in Them, 2001–2008
The first commercial
The first iPod television commercial aired in October 2001. It showed a man dragging music from his iBook to his iPod, closing the laptop, putting in his earphones and dancing around his room to "Take California" by Propellerheads. At the time the iPod worked only with Macs.
The silhouette campaign
In 2003 TBWA\Chiat\Day introduced the silhouette campaign, designed by art director Susan Alinsangan with Lee Clow and James Vincent: dark figures dancing against brightly coloured backgrounds, with the iPod and its earphones shown in white. The campaign ran in print and outdoor formats as well as on television. Its first television version, which brought the print concept to motion, was reported on air in October 2003, set to "Hey Mama" by the Black Eyed Peas and ending with the words "Mac or PC". In June 2004 the campaign won the US$100,000 Grand Prize Kelly Award from the Magazine Publishers of America.
Artist tie-ins
The format was later extended to the musicians themselves. U2's "Vertigo" commercial, which Apple described as a cross between the silhouette ads and a music video, began airing in October 2004 and accompanied the iPod U2 Special Edition announced on 26 October. Bob Dylan performed "Someday Baby" from Modern Times in an August 2006 spot, and in June 2007 Apple began airing an iPod and iTunes advertisement in which Paul McCartney performed "Dance Tonight" from Memory Almost Full.
Later spots
Later commercials promoted individual models. An iPod nano advertisement set to Feist's "1234" helped the song reach number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2007. An iPod touch spot, remade by TBWA\Chiat\Day from a fan video by student Nick Haley that used CSS's "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex", began airing in the United States on 28 October 2007. On 20 May 2008 an iPod advertisement featuring Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" premiered during the American Idol finale.