Missing caps

Technically, I don’t care much who wins the SuperBowl tomorrow. I grew up in the Midwest, and played football in junior high and high school, so I enjoy watching a good game occasionally. Particularly college ball. As for the NFL, I’ve never been a fan of either the Panthers or the Patriots, so the game can go either direction, and it won’t affect my emotional state one iota. I am, as always, looking forward to the commercials. Some years disappoint. Others are filled with some of the best creative that money can buy from an ad agency.

Browsing through previous SuperBowl ads, I’m reminded of some greats which set the bar, instantly becoming some of the most memorable television ads in history.

Of the commercials slated to air this year, I’m not sure if the new spot promoting the Pepsi/iTunes music giveaway will fall into that category. The promotion is going to make big waves. But the whole “I’m one of the kids who was prosecuted for downloading music free off of the internet.” seems like an odd tack to take. It’s not consistent with the mood set in Apple’s recent iPod ads. Possibly more driven by Pepsi execs, it has that finger-flipped-to-the-RIAA kind of attitude. It’s a common opinion shared by many people, but a surprising stance for Apple to publicly support.

While reading news about the promo today, I came across Tune Recycler, which promises to accept unwanted iTunes bottlecap codes in support of independent musicians. Tune Recycler was conceived by the music activists at Downhill Battle, which created the disturbing and harsh iTunes iSbogus campaign. Rather thought-provoking, since I certainly enjoy the convenience of the iTunes Music Store, and think Apple has done a phenomenal job with tying iTunes, the store, and the iPod together. I’m not sure where I sit with this one yet. But now that I know about it, I’ll be watching Downhill Battle’s site a little more closely.

Regardless, the whole Pepsi/iTunes promotion leaves me wondering how many store clerks will start noticing open bottles of Pepsi sitting on their shelves after tomorrow.

Update, 10:30pm: The Pepsi/iTunes spot running tomorrow uses Green Day’s version of “I Fought the Law”. In casually checking the iTunes RSS feed when I got home tonight, I noticed Apple just put up the single, (link only works for users with iTunes installed) showing a Feb. 1 release date. People will hear the song tomorrow during the commercial. Over the next few days the ad runs, they’ll go looking for it, and obviously, iTunes offers it. Means Green Day’s song should appear in the iTMS Top 10 Songs within a day of the SuperBowl.