With all the Olympic-themed ads that have been running during the London Summer Games, some might see the "Apple Genius" ads that debuted the first weekend of the games as a breath of fresh air. They featured a youthful employee who's been let loose from an Apple store's genius bar — still wearing his blue t-shirt and, whether it be on a plane, above, a street corner, or an apartment building, heroically ready to solve consumers' computer problems in the name of touting the brand's Mac line.

More often than not (under the watchful eye of an intensely involved Steve Jobs), Apple ads have always been considered a cut above the ordinary if not positively in a league of their own. Apple has always found a way to advertise a product with a good dose of humanity and a touch of humor. Witness the lauded "I'm a Mac" series from several years ago that brilliantly personified the differences between a Mac and a PC, and the current Siri campaign for the iPhone that feature celebrities including Zooey Deschanel, Samuel L. Jackson, John Malkovich and Martin Scorsese having intensely personal conversations with their iPhones.Continue reading...

Move over, Samuel and Zooey, and John Malkovich — Mr. Scorsese would like quiet on the set as he directs Siri in Apple's latest celeb-starring iPhone 4S commercial. At least she gets to call him Marty.

Fun stuff: New Era baseball caps (which given its sport, doesn't need salary caps) taps a raft of celebs in its new campaign.

In the first spot, fellow NBC stars Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock and John Krasinski (The Office) trash-talk each other's beloved Yankees and Red Sox, in keeping with baseball's humorous marketing this season. Fans are invited to pick their fave of the rival teams on New Era's Facebook page.

Future spots will include Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Martin Scorsese and Justin Bieber.

The trend of getting film directors to create short films (aka branded entertainment) for luxe perfume brands continues with Guy Ritchie's just-released short for Dior Homme, starring Jude Law, a moody French model and a moody French capital, in Paris. Compare it with Martin Scorsese's short for Chanel's new men's fragrance after the jump.Continue reading...

Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese went behind the camera for Chanel's new men's fragrance, Bleu de Chanel, as you can see in the behind-the-scenes peek (via Racked) above. Featuring two of Scorsese's great loves (New York and the Rolling Stones), the short film starring actor Gaspard Ulliel can be viewed after the jump.Continue reading...