Apple releases new animated iPhone 5c ads on Yahoo, NYTimes.com

Apple on Thursday released a digital advertisement campaign on high-profile websites like Yahoo and The New York Times in an apparent bid to gain wider exposure for its lower priced iPhone 5c handset.

The interactive ads, which can be seen on the landing pages of Yahoo and NYTimes.com, feature the 35-dot grid pattern created when an iPhone 5c is covered by Apple's branded silicone case.

While Apple's Yahoo ad stays mainly within a set bounding box, the NYT version "takes over" the homepage with moving dots that ultimately collect in the normal ad space. From there, both iterations randomly display 6 of 17 short videos set to popular music tracks.

For example, Nena's "99 Luftballons" plays as a backtrack for a one clip showing a cloud of red balloons that morph into the iPhone 5c case grid, while another uses the well-known theme from Tetris as the game's iconic blocks represented in dot form fall into place.

The campaign is a departure for Apple, which usually shies away from online ads in favor of print and TV spots. Apple's new online ad initiative is of particular interest considering the iPhone 5c being pushed is seen by some analysts as a struggling product.

A number of reports have claimed the lower cost smartphone is not performing up to Apple's usual gangbuster iPhone sales standards. In January, CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that demand for the 5c was "different than [Apple] thought."