Apple's Eminem spot didn't think different enough from shoe ad.

APPLE Computer Inc.'s ultra-hip iPod commercials, the ones featuring black silhouettes dancing against colored backgrounds, have launched the careers of Indie rock bands Jet (iPod's first commercial) and The Gorillaz (the iPod Shuffle ads). The campaigns, created by the Marina del Rey office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, have become a part of pop culture, plastering billboards and buses all over the world.

But the local ad shop seems to have stumbled with its latest iPod ad, which features rapper Eminem. The spot looks similar to a three-year old ad for Lugz footwear, created by New York advertising firm Avrett Free Ginsberg. Both ads have the same red, orange and yellow background and feature black silhouettes jumping through an urban scene with hip-hop music.

TBWA/Chiat/Day, a division of Omnicom Group, issued a statement saying, "We do not plagiarize, borrow, or steal (ideas), and have a strict policy of not accepting third-party ideas in our creative process."

The agency said that any similarities between the ads were "regrettable," and deferred questions to Apple, which declined to comment. The blogosphere has been buzzing about the ad, especially because it's for a company whose motto is "Think different."

Lugz is considering legal action, The New York Times reported. As one ad-blogger pointed out on the site ipodnn.com, "Lugz should take the extra publicity and have fun."