It's the stuff of legend: the infamous "1984" commercial that kicked off the whole Macintosh phenomenon in, um, well, 1984-- and appropriately enough, during the Super Bowl. (Get it? "Kicked off"? Super Bowl? Ah, never mind.) But in recent years Apple has been largely absent from that orgy of overpriced ads interspersed with occasional footage of big guys wearing helmets and crashing into each other; 1999's airing of the Y2K-themed HAL 9000 ad was the last official Apple commercial to air during the big game-- and we're pretty sure that was Apple's first Super Bowl commercial since 1985 when it aired the way-too-dark-'n'-disturbing-for-the-plebs "Lemmings" ad.

"But AtAT," you protest, "what about last year's 'I Fought The Law' commercial featuring various jailbait RIAA-sued tune-pirates pimping Pepsi's giveaway of 100 million free song downloads (give or take 95 million) from the iTunes Music Store?" Mmm, yeah, well, see, we can't count that, because it wasn't an Apple ad, it was a Pepsi one. Sure, iTunes got plenty of exposure because of it, and the Apple logo figured prominently, but it's just not the same thing. That said, though, we suppose we'd better get used to it, because it's probably the closest thing to a bona fide Apple commercial during the Super Bowl we're ever going to see for a good long while.

There are still plenty of ad spots up for sale, but given the company's track record (three ads in twenty years, and only one in the last eighteen), we just don't see Apple ponying up the cash. Remember, this year was the Mac's twentieth anniversary, and even that momentous occasion didn't prompt a Super Bowl ad, even though Apple's redone "1984" spot (with an iPod digitally added to blonde hammer-tosser Anya Major's shorts) was practically tailor-made for the occasion. There's still two months until next year's game, of course, so Apple might have a change of heart, especially if it's got something amazingly groundbreakingly stunning slated for a Stevenote appearance in January, in which case maybe it hasn't yet bought an ad slot so that no one gets suspicious and wrecks the surprise. But you'll understand if we neglect to hold our breath.

Luckily, we don't have to suffer through a totally Apple-less Super Bowl, because apparently we're going to get an instant (or technically, not-so-instant) replay of last year's game plan: faithful viewer Scott Bradford tipped us off to an article over at MediaWeek which reveals that, "as for Pepsi, look for another spot from Omnicom's TBWA\Chiat\Day, Playa del Rey, Calif., for its iTunes initiative with Apple."

Now, assuming that the report is correct, we find it hard to believe that even Pepsi could be so incompetent and late as to be advertising a promotion that ended about ten months earlier, so you know what this means: another Pepsi-iTunes promotion. Wow. Suppose this is a do-over and this time Pepsi actually plans to distribute all the bottles with iTunes download codes more than a week before the promotion ends? Because that'd be nice. In any case, though, we suppose we should be grateful to Pepsi for getting an Apple presence onscreen during the big game. So whatever the new promo turns out to be, make sure you guzzle enough brown fizzy liquid to fill a bathtub or two, okay?