By Aidan Malley

Published: 10:00 PM EST

Not one for modesty, Apple on Monday night launched a new campaign and TV spot touting its new aluminum MacBook lineup as the most environmentally friendly portables ever.

The freshly posted campaign page backs up the confident stance by centering on the unibody aluminum and glass displays of the MacBook designs, which together cut down on the number of parts and are easy to recycle versus the plastic and other materials used by rivals.

It also touts the elimination of brominated flame retardants and PVC from the insides of all three models, better power management that includes the LED-backlit displays, and the smaller packaging that lets Apple ship and store more units in a single space than earlier models as well as competitors.

A new TV ad, posted below, not only marks the start of a public campaign to promote the systems under their new green role but also Apple's first commercial for the new MacBooks outside of the minutes-long promo video found on its own website.

The new initiative continues a green turnaround for Apple, which has been the target of Greenpeace and other environmental groups for historically neglecting the eco-friendliness of its products, with gradual improvements to Apple's manufacturing process often accompanied by criticisms and threatened lawsuits. Company chief Steve Jobs has promised to clean virtually all toxic materials from Apple's hardware by the end of 2008 but hasn't yet signaled that it has achieved this goal.



Even so, a marker of progress made has been Greenpeace's recent response to the new MacBooks, which praised Apple for its new portables but is urging the electronics firm to finish the job with its desktops.