Speaking of Super Bowl ads, as we've already mentioned, Apple's going to be a no-show to the World's Biggest Ad Orgy again this year-- but just like last year, at least we can look forward to Pepsi footing the bill for a few seconds of Apple-logo airtime. After all, those guys have a lot of syrup-'n'-fizzy-water at stake, so they naturally want to promote the living bejeezus out of the Pepsi iTunes Music Promotion Take 2: This Time We Swear There Are Caps. And while it'll obviously be no 1984 ad, whatever Pepsi comes up with will be better than nothing. Heck, even last year's "Hey Look, We're Thieving Kids Who Got Sued-- Drink Pepsi!" commercial got the Apple name out there in front of the viewers-- and probably at zero cost to Apple, which, considering how ridiculously expensive Super Bowl ad slots are, is actually a pretty sweet deal.

Well, wonder no more, because faithful viewer frozentundra informed us that those resourceful folks at AppleInsider have somehow gotten their grubby little mitts on a QuickTime version of one of the Pepsi-iTunes ads, and have posted it for all to see. Don't expect much, though; the commercial's actually a bit of a disappointment from an Apple fan's perspective. The ad itself isn't all that thrilling (people open bottles of Pepsi products, loud music comes pouring out; pretty straightforward and predictable, though not offensively so), but unlike last year, there's zero airtime for either Apple's name or its logo. The closest you get is that "iTunes.com" appears onscreen during the last three seconds of the commercial's 45.

There's reportedly another 30-second Pepsi-iTunes Super Bowl ad still in the making, but we assume it'll just be more of the same. Evidently Pepsi felt that for $2.4 million per ad slot, it wasn't under any obligation to share the screen with Apple this time around. And really, who could blame it? After all, it's probably also shelling out crazy ducats for however many of those 200 million potential free songs turn into actual downloads, and the whole idea behind this scheme is to promote Pepsi, not the iTunes Music Store. (But we're sure that traffic to iTunes.com will still spike after the commercials air.)

Actually, now that we think about it, though, it's actually almost better that the ads downplay the provider of the tunes.

Although we still think a Mac mini commercial might've been a good idea during this year's game. Just show the mini next to a variety of common household objects and keep flashing the price "$499." How could it lose?