- Todd Wasserman

The ability to shoot video is a key selling point for Apple’s iPhone 3GS, a point underscored in a new ad for the phone.

Apple announced the phone today. The company claims it is two- to three-times faster than current iPhones. A TV spot from TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Marina del Rey, Calif., set to break next week doesn’t talk about the speed, but instead plays up the phone’s ability to shoot digital video.

The ad features the iPhone in a museum-like holder. A man dressed like a cat burglar drops a camera from the ceiling to get a better look at the phone. “I think it’s the same,” he whispers. Then the camera cuts to an employee entering the room after swiping his security card. The employee picks up the phone and then taps the screen, which shows video of the cat burglar’s camera. The man then looks up to the ceiling.

Voiceover: “It’s the iPhone you love. Now with video.”

Apple announced the iPhone 3GS today. The phone, which starts at $299, will vie with other new smart phones including the Palm Pre, which launched last week. An ad for that phone, via Modernista!, was light on product features and showed a woman in a field surrounded by men in red doing tai chi-type movements.