After a divorce saga that included rumors of sleeping with Alex Rodriguez, and what ultimately ended up with a quicky legal split, Madonna is wise to rapidly shift focus away from her personal affairs and on to something more … consumerist. Enter Louis Vuitton, which Ms. Sticky & Sweet is said to be shooting a campaign for, joining the ranks of Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, and Catherine Deneuve in the brand's relaxed-yet-stylized campaign.

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Project Runway alum Nick Verreos is the softer side of Sears this holiday season in a new ad campaign called "Wishtories" that also features Ty Pennington, LL Cool J and Vanessa Hutchens. Each spot has a celebrity sitting down and talking about a childhood Christmas gift they received that helped them reach their dreams. Uncle Nick's is of course, a sewing machine.

The ads are wonderfully heartwarming with the underlying theme of "Please, oh God, please buy stuff this season, even if there's not going to be any stock market or auto industry and we'll all be fighting each other off with hand-carved sticks come January. Pleeeeeaaaaassse" which is done primarily through orchestral strings and nostalgic childhood memories. Seriously, by the time Nick gets around to talking about how he thanks his parents every single day and tells them "my successes are your successes", every kid who's ever even glanced at a thread and needle will be getting a brand new Craftsman sewing machine under the tree this year. Don Draper would approve.

Nick told Queerty all about the experience:

"I was approached over a month ago-in the midst of making my Spring Collection for the Bahamas Fashion Week-by Sears to be in their upcoming Holiday Commercial and ad campaign…

Well, needless to say I was floored-and started jumping up and down like a little girl!

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Some of you out there may not be comfortable getting in the middle of gay marriage debates - and who can blame you? it's only about equality - but that doesn't mean you can't join a good cause. For example, some college kids have started a movement against car company Toyota's ubiquitous, infuriating "Saved By Zero" ad campaign.

The ever-insightful NY Post provides the inspiring details:

…Facebook groups, bloggers and others have risen up against the automaker's ad.

"It's pretty much unanimous that everyone I've talked with thinks it's very annoying," said Colin Anderson, 19, a freshman at the SUNY at Binghamton.

He created the Facebook group "Stop Playing Toyota's 'Saved by Zero' Commercial." It has swelled to more than 1,200 members.

We've included the ad above purely for those of you who may not be familiar with its grating quality. Those of you who are familiar should skip the video demonstration and go about your day, which we hope is splendid. For those of you who did watch the commercial: you should have known better.

John McCain may be a bit upset with Dick Cheney today.

Sure, the vice-president came out in support of McCain and running mate this weekend, telling the world he's "delighted" to back their candidacy, but that little sound byte has provided all sorts of fodder for Barack Obama's campaign, which has used Cheney's comment as the pivot point for a new attack ad on McCain's love for the Bush administration. The ad's called "Delighted." Ha!

Barack Obama took a double-shot at John McCain's campaign today.

This commercial, entitled "His Choice," first highlights Republican McCain's repeated admissions that he's not that great with the economy. Those policy decisions, he once said, will be made by his vice-president, which leads to the titular line and a shot of Sarah Palin winking.

Vice-presidential candidates aren't typically attacked in campaign ads, but apparently Obama thinks that Palin, with her scads of bad press, is a ripe target. Fair enough, although we have to admit this advert left a bit of a bad taste in our mouth.

It's not simply the fact that Palin's painted as a bit of a dolt, a sentiment with which we agree, but that she's presented as a dismissive character, not an attitude to take with only the second female running mate in American history. But, what do we know? We're not campaign managers…

Ellen's tearing up the activist scene.

The lesbian funny lady this week released a video urging voters to vote "no" on California's Proposition 8, which - as you should know by now - would overturn gay marriage in the Golden State.

The commercial is all well and good, but Ms. DeGeneres has only just started. The No On 8 campaign informs us that the comedienne has used $100,000 of her own cash to buy up television time to further spread her progressive message.

…Ellen DeGeneres has made a media buy to urge Californians to vote NO on Proposition 8. The effort was partially revealed Tuesday when Ellen released a special video to confront false and misleading scare tactics used by those supporting the proposition. DeGeneres is purchasing television time for her ad to underscore the importance of this fight and broaden the reach of the spot.

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It's the intellectual versus the traditionalists!

Pepperdine University president Andrew K. Benton bit back at the Yes on 8 campaign this week after the activists invoked his institution's name in an incendiary ad.

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John McCain stars in two new commercials this morning - and neither's very flattering.

The first comes from the Republican himself. Entitled "Fight," the 60-second spot features Senator McCain doing his best impersonation of personable and promising, "The last eight years haven't worked very well, have they? I'll make the next four better." Pam Spaulding can't help but describe this show as a near "parody." We've included the transcript down below.

The second commercial comes from McCain rival Barack Obama, whose team seized on McCain's comments last night that he's not George Bush. Insisted the Republican, "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

Well, the Obama camp took those words and paired them with a McCain appearance on Bill O'Reilly's show, on which McCain bragged that he voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. Not only that, says McCain, he did "everything in my power" to get Bush elected and reelected.

Watch it, after the jump…

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Bringing homophobia to the mainstream, the Advertising Council and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network will today launch a campaign against "That's so gay."

It's the first time the council has used its public service announcements to help out the homos.

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With less than a month until election day, both presidential campaigns are gearing up for a tough, ugly fight and plenty of mudslinging.

Hoping to take the heat of their candidate's shortcoming on the economy, John McCain's campaign announced this weekend that they're going to take a decidedly dirty road and focus their energies on undercutting rival Barack Obama's moral standing.

Said one anonymous staffer: "We're going to get a little tougher. We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here." And McCain running mate Sarah Palin certainly took the lead in that game this weekend.

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Again and again John McCain's foes have highlighted his health and emphasized that his running mate, Sarah Palin, is but a "heartbeat" away from the presidency. And California's registered nurses are no exception.

Just one week after two PAC's released an ad taking on McCain's cancer past, the California Nurses Association launched a campaign in which they suggest McCain's health could fail and thus open the White House for Palin, a politico who has used her power to get personal revenge, billed sexual assault victims for rape kits and billed people who work from home, they say.

This commercial will air in six battleground states - Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri - and will run for two days, which, in this election season, is a mere heartbeat.

Barack Obama's campaign comes out swinging this Tuesday!

With John McCain and Sarah Palin pulling ahead in the polls, Senator Obama's camp put together this commercial taking on the Republicans' so-called "Maverick" attitudes.

In addition to taking on McCain's siding with George W. Bush, this advert, which will be run in battle ground states, also highlights the fact that seven of the candidate's closest advisors have worked as lobbyists.

As for Palin, her "Bridge To Nowhere" flip-flop takes the brunt of the blast. The narrator concludes, "Politicians lying about their records? You don't call that "maverick." You call it more of the same."

This latest advert comes in response to a McCain commercial entitled "The Original Mavericks," which we've included down below…

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