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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 below, 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."

June 17, 2013, 4:17 AM EDT

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.

June 17, 2013, 3:43 AM EDT

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.

June 17, 2013, 3:00 AM EDT

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."

June 14, 2013, 1:00 PM EDT

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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June 14, 2013, 11:56 AM EDT

Family Guy Pleads for an Emmy With Racy Spoof of HBO's Girls Provocative 'For your consideration' ad

Fox's Family Guy has a new "For Your Consideration" ad for this year's Emmy Awards, because Seth MacFarlane's unfunny Rat Pack schtick hasn't ruined enough award shows yet. The latest ad references an episode of HBO's Girls in which someone received a pearl necklace. Hence the Family Guy headline: "Here's a load of comedy to shoot on your chest." Groan. It's better than the lazy Jew-baiting that MacFarlane and company have been relying on lately, but that Girls episode was beaten to death long before they got to it. But that's to be expected from a show that hasn't been funny since I was in college.

June 14, 2013, 9:25 AM EDT

Fiat's Abarth 500 Is So Fast, You Can't Follow It on Twitter Go ahead and try

Here's a fun Twitter stunt from Germany for Fiat's Abarth 500 turbocharged hatchback. If you try to follow the vehicle's official Twitter page, you get a direct message saying that no one can follow the Abarth 500, because it's just too fast. (Its follower count, which briefly clicks up to 1 when you follow, soon goes back down to 0.) Clever. The upside, of course, is all the earned media. The downside? You know—no Twitter followers.

June 13, 2013, 2:19 PM EDT

Has O'Charley's Created a Poor Man's Ron Swanson? Meet steak lover Brock Roland

I doubt I'm alone in believing that Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman's mustache) is one of the best characters in TV history. The folks at O'Charley's seem to be such fans that they've created their own "spokes-patron" who seems to be an homage to television's favorite steak-devouring Libertarian. The "Brock Roland" character appears in two new spots for O'Charley's. In one, Roland introduces himself by saying he'll gamble on push-up contests and love, but not on steak. In the second spot, he adds an order of chicken fingers to his cowboy sirloin, which might get a nod of respect from Swanson, who likes to order his steaks in threes and once asked a diner for "all the bacon and eggs you have." Check out one of the O'Charley's spots below and another after the jump, where you'll also find a few of our favorite Ron Swanson food moments.

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June 13, 2013, 11:26 AM EDT

Huggies Makes Pregnancy Belt for Men So They Can Feel Their Baby Kicking Moms no longer have all the fun

Huggies and Ogilvy & Mather Argentina made a belt for men that allows them to feel their unborn baby's kicks. The belt is synced up with the real-time movements of the baby in the mother's belly, apparently through some kind of wireless sorcery. It's a neat idea, although the description of it as "something special to compensate fathers" is a little weird, like pregnancy is some kind of cakewalk that they're missing out on. But, whatever. It's hard for me to get on my high horse about this when things like the Daddle exist.

June 13, 2013, 11:10 AM EDT

Volkswagen Uses Sinatra's 'My Way' to Great Effect in Schizophrenic New Ad Beating the odds in Vegas

Adam&eveDDB once again gambles on an unconventional approach for Volkswagen in this new U.K. spot, which offers cornball renditions of "My Way," including one performed on pan pipes, for the first 40 seconds (more than half its running time) while keeping the Golf GTI out of sight. Then—badda bing!—Frank Sinatra's iconic version of the song kicks in, and the car's in every freaking frame, zipping around the Las Vegas strip and hot wheelin' on the roof of the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino. This segue from weird home-video/YouTube fodder to big-bucks commercial glitz could've been jarring, but is handled so smoothly that it pays off in an ad that's different enough to be memorable without seeming ridiculous. There's a making-of clip for viewers who wish to double down. Also, have a look back at adam&eveDDB's VW spot from last month, when it really hit the jackpot with an unusual and compelling commercial highlighting the automaker's fuel-saving start/stop technology.

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June 13, 2013, 9:54 AM EDT

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AdFreak is your daily blog of the best and worst of creativity in advertising, media, marketing and design. Follow us as we celebrate (and skewer) the latest, greatest, quirkiest and freakiest commercials, promos, trailers, posters, billboards, logos and package designs around. Edited by Adweek's Tim Nudd. Updated every weekday, with a weekly recap on Saturdays.

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