The face behind behind one of the most recognizable silhouettes in the ad world was revealed by the New York Post on Monday. Her name is Mandy Coulton, better known to the public as the sleek bikini-clad silhouette dancing her little heart out in one of Apple's iPod commercials. Actually, she's one of 10 dancers chosen for the campaign, but as the Post authoritatively intones, Coulton's "striped bikini shot is by far the most recognizable of the series." Turns out that Mandy didn't make much from the iPod gig. She told the tabloid she made  a flat $1,500 for the shoot. What, don't silhouettes earn residuals? For Apple, that's a pretty fabulous ROI, considering that it has sold some 20 million iPods since the silhouette campaign was unveiled in 2001. Meanwhile, poor Mandy says she can't even afford an iPod of her own. Apparently her dance career hasn't exactly taken off. She even works part time as a nanny to earn some pin money. And I even hate to think about the dry-spell her venture-capitalist husband must be going through. Maybe they should move  from Sherman Oaks in Southern California a  little further north to where the big Silicon Valley money is. He might do a little better. In any event, Mandy says she's not bitter. "At the time, $1,500 seemed like a lot of money," she said. Hmm, I wonder how much Apple paid Bono and his band U2. True, that was a slightly  different arrangement that featured a new U2-branded iPod, a music licensing deal, and, silhouettes aside, residuals.

—Posted by Steve McClellan