John McAfee Goes Full Charlie Sheen in Bizarre Ad Full of Guns, Drugs and Women Insane self-promotion

Witness this bizarrely amusing ad for John McAfee's personal blog. If that name sounds familiar, it's because John McAfee is the man who started McAfee anti-virus software. He's also the eccentric millionaire who was accused of murdering his neighbor, which led the media to look into his paranoia, gun obsession, rumored drug habits, multiple nubile girlfriends and the story of how his great white messiah complex played out in the backwoods of Belize. With that in mind, just watch this little viral, in which McAfee tells you how to uninstall the software that made his name, while making fun of all his purported vices—including snorting coke out of a crazy straw before giving up and face planting in the coke pile.

To say that I understand what John McAfee is doing here is to imply that one could ever understand what John McAfee is doing in general, but I'm going to take a shot. Upon realizing the enormous commercial success of the story of his own life, John McAfee (who, regardless of any other poor choices he might have made, has always been a marketing genius) decided to pull a full-on Charlie Sheen—winning by combining his bat-shit crazy bad-boy persona with our culture's love of train wrecks to make money off his larger-than-life image … despite his repeated claims elsewhere that he's been drug-free for decades. On that note, his autobiography (in graphic novel format) and his biography (written by a former coke baron) are reportedly coming out in the near future. Somebody get this man a TV show before he ODs on Viagra.

Danny MacAskill Lives Out Childhood Fantasies in Wonderful Red Bull Video Stunt cyclist back in his bedroom

This seven-minute Red Bull video cements Scottish cyclist Danny MacAskill's standing as a badass brand spokes-man.

It took 68 weeks over a two-year period to shoot this mix of fantasy, memory and dazzling bicycle stunts. A former museum in Glasgow was transformed into a Land of the Giants-style version of MacAskill's childhood bedroom, cluttered with outsized rubber balls, playing cards, colored pencils, comic books, a Rubik's Cube, a Twister game, alphabet blocks, a race-car loop-de-loop track and even a toy-train-and-station set.

As arena-rock ("Runaway" by Houston) blares on the soundtrack, the YouTube star, who's notched 60 million views across his video catalog, performs a crazy array of jumps, turns, spins and landings among the kids' stuff scattered across the floor. In the best bit, he lands on a tank turret and rides down the cannon, only to have green plastic army men spring to life and make off with his bike.

All this fanciful action is taking place inside the mind of a pre-pubescent Danny MacAskill as the boy sits on the floor, surrounded by toys and games, devising wild stunts for an action-figure cyclist to perform. Playtime abruptly ends when his mother threatens to "shoot the boots off ye" if young Danny doesn't hurry down to tea. (The daredevil's real mom, Anne, makes a cute cameo.)

MacAskill wears a Red Bull helmet, but the brand's presence is never intrusive. Instead of just peddling image or product, the film scores as entertainment, and this pumps up its value as branded content. Of course, it doesn't scale the heights of Red Bull's Felix Baumgartner viral. It's similar to the marketer's Rube Goldberg clip, which also featured MacAskill, but I prefer this new video, part of his "Imaginate" series. It unabashedly celebrates creative play and subtly suggests that you just might be able to ride the dreams of youth all the way to adulthood.

Artists Give Old Domino's Signage a Second Life in 'Second Hand Logos' Project Upcycling the obsolete

Say what you want about Domino's (it's an abomination unto the Lord), but it has one of the better branded Pinterest projects I've seen in a while—Second Hand Logos. Since Domino's recently redesigned its logo, Crispin Porter + Bogusky got to thinking about what happens to a company's old signage, clothing, store materials, etc. So, the agency commissioned 10 artists to make stuff with old Domino's employee shirts, pizza boxes and other company ephemera. Lots of it is for sale, and Domino's is being gracious enough not to demand a cut of the artists' sales, which is pretty cool of the company. More of the work will roll out in the coming days. Doesn't make this any less accurate, but this is a good example of effective consumer outreach.

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Apple Finds Its Footing Again With Evocative Film About Third-Party iOS Apps Small, powerful stories

My colleague Tim Nudd recently wondered if Apple, at a crucial time of transition in the company's history, had lost its voice in the new "Our Signature" manifesto commercial. The company speaks clearly and with great confidence, however, in "Making a Difference One App at a Time," a 10-minute film by TBWA\Media Arts Lab that focuses on how third-party iOS apps can profoundly change people's lives.

Now, I initially assumed that such aspirational advertising, especially in a long-form outing, would veer into mawkish, tear-jerk territory. I was mistaken. The muted, documentary-style approach strikes the perfect tone, and "Making a Difference" says a whole lot without ever getting overly sentimental or offering pie-in-the-sky promises about making the world a better place.

"Making a Difference" both tells us why Apple's products are great and shows us that they are, introducing viewers to a range of people who use or develop vastly different apps that run on iPhones and iPads. We meet a nurse who uses the technology to make diagnoses in remote, rural areas of Kenya; an Olympic medal-winning amputee rower who programs her prosthetic legs; a Native American woman striving to keep the Cherokee language alive; and, most poignantly, a non-verbal youngster who finds his virtual voice and now talks to his family and friends via iPad every day.

In a way, these are small, intimate stories that gain considerable power (and a truly universal vibe) when woven together. Yet, the piece as a whole never feels forced or overblown. There's a cool, almost detached aspect to "Making a Difference"—achieved with lingering Steadicam shots, fluid editing and an elusive ambient soundtrack—that's analogous to Jonathan Ive's Apple product designs. His vision, at its best, is gorgeous yet restrained, evocative and efficient with all elements in harmony, and the same can be said for this film. It has great form but also function, with viewers learning quite a bit about iOS apps and feeling like we're part of the conversation.

Intriguingly, all four stories are ultimately about enabling and facilitating various types of communications. The apps—and, by extension, the Apple products they run on—are convincingly cast as high-tech translators. Working together, humans and machines create a new language of hope, change and deeper understanding.

Vegetarians Have a Beef With Red Robin's Garden Burger Ad What are you, a fickle teenager?

Back in January, Red Robin basked in the glow of good publicity after the manager of one of its North Carolina restaurants comped a pregnant patron $11.50 and added a good-luck message to her bill. Aww! The coverage this week, however, is closer to aww-ful, as the chain is taking heat from vegetarians for a commercial touting its 24 burger options. The 15-second spot includes the line, "We even have a garden burger … just in case your teenage daughter is going through a phase." The actress's overdone delivery, probably intended as conspiratorial, comes off as condescending. Now, you'd think vegetarians would be too scrawny and weak to kick up a fuss, but they flocked to social media (where else?) and accused the chain of being disrespectful and callous, demanding that it pull the ad and/or apologize. On Monday, Red Robin's communications chief, Kevin Caulfield, told the Huffington Post that the ad "is planned to be out of rotation and no longer on the air very soon." The controversy will have no lasting impact, and I expect any ill will to vanish as soon as the commercial does. It's not like the chain's employees posted videos of themselves licking garden burgers or sticking their toes in the lettuce—yet. Behave, burger people! See a few more spots from the campaign after the jump.

red robin says it offers a gardenburger "just in case your teenage daughter is going through a phase." how many groups did it just insult?

— Chris Ziegler (@zpower) June 18, 2013

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Kraft Salad Dressing Ad Gets Best Present Ever: A Slap From One Million Moms Fury over zesty, naked picnic

Kraft's saucy ad campaign (via ad agency Being) for its Zesty Italian salad dressing launched in early April, but it's taken a rebuke from One Million Moms to give it a sudden enormous boost of visibility. The moms are super pissed off about the print ad above, featuring the campaign's hunky model, Anderson Davis, enjoying a naked picnic. The ad is far from subtle—the picnic blanket has pretty obviously been pulled over Davis's privates in such a way that it looks somewhat obscene. This infuriated the moms, which write on their website: "Last week's issue of People magazine had the most disgusting ad on the inside front cover that we have ever seen Kraft produce. A full 2-page ad features a n*ked man lying on a picnic blanket with only a small portion of the blanket barely covering his g*nitals. It is easy to see what the ad is really selling." Nope, they can't even say the words naked or genitals. The moms add: "Christians will not be able to buy Kraft dressings or any of their products until they clean up their advertising." Kraft responded with this statement: "Our Kraft dressing's 'Let's Get Zesty' campaign is a playful and flirtatious way to reach our consumers. People have overwhelmingly said they're enjoying the campaign and having fun with it."

Microsoft Bashes Siri Again in New Ad Showing Off Dell's XPS 10 Tablet Ouch! Ouch!

Microsoft vents its inferiority complex with Apple yet again—by humiliating Siri—in this new spot from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, following a similar ad last month that got more than 5 million views on YouTube. The new spot compares Dell's XPS 10 tablet to the iPad. Microsoft is still smarting about the "Mac vs. PC" ads, to judge by the tone of these ads, which is a shame, because that Dell tablet looks cool enough to stand on its own. And if you think this is harsh, I wouldn't be surprised if future ads take potshots at the Sony Xperia after what happened at E3 this year.

Mother's New Campaign for Optimum Is Completely MIDWULS Turning the phone number into 'something catchy'

Mother New York made up a word, "MIDWULS," using the last seven digits of Optimum's phone number, and created an integrated campaign around it. MIDWULS, we're told, is "that incredible feeling that comes when you get a great deal on TV, phone and Internet" by signing up with Optimum. The launch commercial shows folks in different situations saying "MIDWULS," and goofs on sci-fi-game addicts, Game of Thrones fanatics and Web-lovin' street gangs ("Yo, this is our hotspot!"). The campaign goes all-in, with a Wikipedia page (it's been deleted), a Tumblr (fairly amusing), an online store (every item is "sold out"—ha!) and the requisite #MIDWULS hashtag. (It's possible that Michael Bolton's next album will be titled MIDWULS.) I initially wondered if perhaps Mother deleted the Wikipedia entry itself as a postmodern, meta media move. Then I realized, even if they had, it would be a meh-ta move at best. The work tries a little too hard to be clever, like I just did with "meh-ta," and already feels played out. "MIDWULS" is amusing as a one-off, but I doubt it will spell success in the long run.

Max Page, Volkswagen's Little Vader, Makes the Most of His Jedi Powers Actor raises $50,000 for Children's Hospital

A year ago this week, Max Page—known to ad geeks as the 8-year-old actor who played Little Vader in Volkswagen's 2011 Super Bowl ad—had open-heart surgery for a congenital heart defect. He's had eight surgeries in all at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Now, People magazine has an update on how he's doing. In short, he's healthy—and making a difference. "He's doing remarkably well," his mom, Jennifer Page, says. "He's a full-throttle kid who loves doing charity work, making appearances in hospitals nationwide, raising funds and cheering up other kids." Max serves as a junior ambassador for Children's, and has raised more than $50,000 for the hospital. "I love being able to help kids who are less fortunate," he says. "It's all about giving back." It looks like the Vader suit comes along with him, too. "It was fun filming it," he says. "It's never going to get old to me."

Heineken Celebrates Corny #DadJokes in Father's Day Hashtag Campaign W+K to meme-ify best submissions

If you are male, the moment you have a child you are required to drastically alter your sense of humor in ways both profound and irreversible. Where before you were witty and sharp, you must now become broad and pun-heavy. This is mostly so you can embarrass your offspring, although, counterintuitively, it is also guaranteed to make them love you more. (The whole thing is probably evolutionary in some complex way.) This Sunday, for Father's Day, Heineken will celebrate this oddity of the human condition with a #dadjokes campaign from Wieden + Kennedy in New York. You submit your cheesiest dad joke with that hashtag to @Heineken_US, and the brewer will meme-ify its favorites—posting your joke next to stock photos of awesome dads through the ages. Heineken will add its own #dadjokes throughout the day, too, and all of them will be archived on a special #dadjokes Tumblr. Join in Sunday, and make it the most groan-inducing site on the Internet. Credits below.

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