iPhone commercial hits the red carpet during Oscar telecast

Posted by Mark Raby

Hollywood (CA) - Although it is not planned for release until June, Apple debuted the first iPhone commercial during the Academy Awards telecast on ABC last night. The ad did little to accentuate the features of the device. Instead, it unveiled what is assumedly Apple's slogan for its flagship cell phone, "Hello". In total, clips from 31 different TV shows and movies were spliced together with various characters saying the word "hello", followed by a very brief stale image of the phone. The text "coming in June" wrapped up the commercial.

The ad, which can be streamed on Apple's website premiered during the first commercial break for the Oscars and was repeated several times throughout the 3+ hour program.

Recently, Apple ended a several-month legal battle with Cisco over the trademark rights for the use of the word "iPhone". However, the ad never actually mentions the phone by name.