Song-swappers launch download ad

Sixteen teenagers appear in the commercial

Teenagers who were sued by the US music industry for downloading music are appearing in a TV advert for a promotion using Apple's iTunes service.

The advert, for a tie-up between iTunes and Pepsi, will appear during American football's Super Bowl on Sunday.

The band Green Day perform The 1966 track I Fought The Law for the ad.

More than 100 million Americans watch the gridiron final each year - with 30-second advertisement slots fetching more than $2m (£1.5m) each.

The advertisement pushes a promotion where iTunes users can download music for free by collecting codes in Pepsi bottle tops.

It features 16 teenagers, who were all sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, with captions reading "busted", "incriminated" and "accused".

One of them says to the camera, while holding a bottle of the soft drink: "I'm here to announce in front of 100 million people we're still going to download our music free from the internet - and there's not a thing anyone can do about it."

Apple ad

The Super Bowl is US TV's most prestigious place for advertisers, and it has a special significance for Apple.

In 1984, it used the event to launch its Macintosh personal computer with a one-off advertisement directed by Ridley Scott.

Since being launched in the US in April 2003, iTunes has sold more than 25 million tracks, at 99 cents (54 pence) a time. A European version is widely expected to launch later this year.

In the UK, Pepsi's rival Coca-Cola recently put its name to a new download service, MyCokeMusic.com.