Apple breaks out new ad for former adversary Paul McCartney album

Apple is showing no hard feelings in the wake of its final settlement with lawyers representing the business interests of Sir Paul McCartney and the other ex-Beatles.

This month McCartney rolled out his new album on the Apple iTunes service, making it accessible in minutes to the tens or hundreds of millions of MS-Windows and Macintosh users.

Last night I saw an iTunes ad written around the new McCartney album and the rocker himself. It was pretty good. Very colorful and creative blend of art, technology, and video. Appropriate, it seems - for the newest blockbuster product on the iTunes service.

A couple of decades ago I was awestruck by the initial Apple TV ad - the ominous yet encouraging "1984" TV commercial.

Nowadays, Apple ads are infinitely more playful and warm. The steaks are no longer life-and-death for Apple, its platform, or its user community.

Now, it is just good, clean fun!

The adoption of entertainment products and services into the Apple core product line families has really transformed the company and a few industries. Just about everyone would say - a lot for the better.

It has given marketeers for Apple a whole new audience to play with too.