What's this? A press release on Apple's web site that doesn't quote Steve Jobs or Phil Schiller? Something is tragically amiss! Worse yet, it also lacks Apple's standard closing "About Apple" boilerplate. Now how the heck are we supposed to remember that Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II-- or that it reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh? Indeed, we can already feel ourselves starting to forget what Apple is committed to; something about bringing the best personal computing experience to yadda yadda yadda through its innovative something and whosis thingy.

Oh, wait-- never mind, false alarm: it's just a Pepsi announcement which Apple has included in its own Press Release Library as part of the Great Pepsifying of Apple.com. You saw the 100 million bottles of Pepsi on Apple's home page, right? Between that and the Pepsi press release (which is actually about the company's five Super Bowl commercials, and only tangentially related to Apple because one of them happens to be the iTunes giveaway ad), at this point there's far more Pepsi at Apple's site than at Pepsi's own. Then again, there's an Apple logo on Pepsi's home page, so we suppose we can let it slide this time.

Actually, it's sort of refreshing to load up Apple's web site to find barely a Mac in sight: we see a kajillion Pepsi bottles, five iPod minis, iLife '04 and Final Cut Express 2 boxes, and a single teeny Xserve as the token Mac presence on the page. (Is it as refreshing as drinking a Sierra Mist? Yeah, it's kinda like that.) Of course, it's also a little alarming, especially to folks concerned about the Mac taking a back seat to music products and services at Apple these days. We were just getting used to the idea of Apple becoming a music company (shh-- don't tell the Beatles), and now we find we've got to get used to Apple selling soft drinks, too. We suppose we'd feel a little more at home if the Super Bowl ad press release had seen fit to mention that PepsiCo ignited the personal cola revolution in the 1890s with Pepsi Cola and reinvented the personal cola in the 2000s with Pepsi Twist, but hey, nobody said the transition would be easy.

Ah, well; at least the Pepsi tie-in means you can now download a couple of decent stills of evil teen song-swappers directly from Apple's site days in advance of the commercial's broadcast debut, as noted by the faithful viewers at Further Studios. (They're for "Media and Analysts Only," though. Ooooo.) The jury's still out on whether Pepsi's hand-picked brigade of Bad Girls headed by 15-year-old pirate lass Annie Leith will attract the same sort of inexplicable creepy cult following as switcher Ellen Feiss, but if it does happen, it may be worth noting that Pepsi says you can get a videotape of the commercial by contacting Lisa Cataldo at the phone number or email address provided in the press release. Score!