Wow, now we know we're off our game-- must be this wacky Leap Year thing. See, generally we don't get surprised by a new Apple TV commercial popping up during our favorite shows, because being the with-it, plugged-in people we are, we usually know well in advance when Apple's planning to hawk its wares with a shiny new thirty-second ad. For one thing, those commercials are typically test-driven first during a Stevenote address, with the audience applause-o-meter determining which get the heaviest airplay and which get left on the cutting-room floor. All those iMovie/desktop video ads, for example? Steve showed them in January at the Expo. Yeah, the "iMovie directed by Dad" one was quite a bit different when it finally hit the airwaves (that overplayed Green Day ballad had been replaced by Dylan's "Forever Young," for better or for worse), but that was the biggest surprise, really.

So there we were, kicking back in the AtAT Green Room (it's not green, but it is a room-- one out of two ain't bad) and watching Angel as per our Tuesday night ritual, when this commercial comes on. There's a slow horizontal pan across various formalwear elements laid out on a table as some mellow jazz plays in the background. Suddenly the unmistakable voice of Jeff Goldblum intones, "The honor of your presence is requested at the marriage of power and elegance..." At that point, we realize we're watching what can only be an Apple commercial. Of course, the iBook Special Edition! Now how'd that one sneak by us? Even if this commercial was "pre-flight tested" at the Tokyo Expo where the iBook SE made its debut, without a webcast available, we'd only know if someone told us. And the odds are pretty good that if Apple had this commercial ready at that time, they may not have played it for a Japanese audience anyway.

Still, though, that's no excuse for having been caught totally off-guard. After all, the iMac DV Special Edition had its own commercial, so at the very least this "Formal Wear" ad should have been on our radar. Nope, we just got sloppy. How sloppy? Well, AppleLinks claims that this ad's been available in QuickTime format at Apple's web site since Monday. You mean this thing was public for a full day before we saw it? 'Fraid so. Hmmm, we've really got to watch less TV. Or more. Depends on your perspective, we guess.