The first happened when I logged into the Apple iTunes Store this morning and this is what I saw.

A complete buy out of the three big advertising spaces at the top of the store. For those of you who don’t use the store, each of those squares traditionally advertises one piece of content and they rotate slowly through usually three different options. Most of the time it is highlighting the newest album, movie or service.

This the first time I’ve seen a complete buy out of all three for one brand and there is no rotation. I’m sure this has to do with all the American Idol content that the store has this year. Performances, audition videos, links to songs that are sung, the works. Kudos to all involved.

The second came as I was checking the news on Boston.com and saw a banner ad from McDonald’s that caught my eye. That in itself takes a lot since like most people I get banner blindness and usually ignore them. Where it took me was The Chilled Out Lounge.

McDonald’s has said it wants to move beyond just fast food and wants to go directly after Starbucks in the coffee market. This is obviously a play in that direction. Not sure I’ll personally ever be able to think of McDonald’s as anything other then a place I can’t eat ever since watching Super Size Me.

The point of this post is to showcase some big brands trying new things. Nothing earth shattering or mind blowing here. Certainly nothing that has not been done before, but it was unique enough that I wanted to share it here.

Last year I bought my first digital SLR. I had been using Nikon’s for years. I think I had been using them ever since I bought a CoolPix-990 for my office many moons ago.

When making a decision I went to all the websites and review sites, but in the end it was the people and conversations I had that helped me make up my mind. I talked to both hobbyists and full blown full time photographers about what they used and what the differences were and in the end I bought the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Lots of reasons behind it, but that’s not the point of this post.

Today a friend pointed me in the direction of the Nikon Picturetown and I was instantly hooked. This is similar in nature to the current blogger outreach they are running with the D80 line, but at the same time completely different. They gave a little small town a bunch of cameras and told them to shoot their lives. What they end up with is a gallery of people, activities and real life events showcasing that anyone in fact can use their cameras which is the point of the campaign.

There is some flack going back and forth about if giving bloggers cameras and encouraging them to talk about it is right or wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again that as long as a blogger discloses they are part of a campaign then it is ok. Right then the minute you read their post you know they are being a bit biased no matter what. It’s human nature.

I think the whole “Stunning Nikon” is an interesting approach across the board. But, the Picturetown part of it is definitely my favorite. Kudos to all involved.

Update: Because I’ve already been asked, I want to make it clear that I’m not part of any outreach from Nikon. They ignore me in their latest campaigns *grin* I’m just impressed by what they are doing and hope they keep it up.