Ahead of her debut as the Super Bowl half-time performer on Sunday, Madonna has released her new single, Give Me All Your Luvin', which features back-up vocals by pop stars Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. and football players galore.

The NBA's 2011 rookie of the year, Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin, is back in two new commercials for Kia Optima ("Not your average spokesman. Not your average midsize sedan") — watch the other spot below. Griffin is giving Kobe Bryant and LeBron James a run for the money as pitchman, according to Bleacher Report.Continue reading...

Japanese pro tennis player Kei Nishikori, ranked 26th in the world, made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before being taken down by Andy Murray, the world’s fourth best.

Nishikori’s excellent tournament will raise him up to 20th in the world and surely has a few executives at sponsor Fast Retailing Co. and its famous retail subsidiary, Uniqlo, smiling a whole lot these days, one year into a five-year deal brokered by IMG. The same probably can’t be said for Sony, which didn’t renew a sponsorship deal last November, and Adidas, which wasn’t aggressive enough and lost its deal with Nishikori to Uniqlo.

Even though Nishikori lost the match to Murray, it was likely watched by 55 million more viewers than it would have been if Nishikori wasn’t in it. “Japan’s public broadcaster NHK purchased the rights to air” the match, Bloomberg reports, which grew the viewing audience exponentially.Continue reading...

Moneyball actor Chris Pratt takes on a dream role in this teaser for Microsoft's Xbox 360's upcoming Kinect Star Wars game, where he goes battle with Darth Vader.

Kate Moss has taken over from Isabeli Fontana as the global face of Spanish brand Mango, which calls Moss an "urban, independent and bold woman."

The British supermodel's first TV commercial for the chain (directed by Terry Richardson, above, it shows looks from its spring 2012 collection) was released on Twitter this morning — and follows last year's viral video promotion for the brand's fall/winter 2011 collection featuring Moss and Richardson on the lam, as you can watch below.Continue reading...

Weight Watchers has been bucking the tide in the weight-loss business during the year since introducing a huge wrinkle in its long-used diet-evaluation system, called Points Plus. And now, the company wants to apply its new success formula to male dieters.

Even though January is the seasonal high tide for Weight Watchers, Jenny (Craig), Nutrisystem and other dieting brands, overall the weight-loss business has been getting leaner these days. Recessionary times and consumers taking a dollar-saving, individualized approach to weight loss have been largely to blame for a lagging industry performance that gained only 2 percent last year compared with a traditional 6-percent year-on-year improvement.

That's one big reason Nutrisystem has increased its focus on men.Continue reading...

Kobe Bryant's mock personal motivation commercial for his latest shoe — the Kobe VII System — for Nike: "Where do you go from the top? You go over the top. The #KobeSystem: Success for the Successful is Kobe's winning, results-oriented philosophy on how to adapt to succeed. You're Welcome."

Celebrity cameos include comedian/actor Aziz Ansari, Hope Solo, LeBron James, Jerry Rice, Landon Donovan, Tony Robbins, Serena Williams, Kanye West,  and Richard Branson.

Find out more (on a more serious note) about the Kobe VII System shoe (Correction: "It isn't a shoe, but a system that adapts with you and allows you to elevate your game," says Nike) below.Continue reading...

Barring another outbreak of Tebowmania on the field at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, the New England Patriots seem poised to take another step on a return to possible Super Bowl glory by defeating the Denver Broncos in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

But if you were a brand executive assessing the field of highly paid athletes and betting on longer-term endorsement outcomes, not the scoreboard for this particular contest, on which starting quarterback would you place a bet: Tom Brady, the Patriots' pretty-boy field general with the California pedigree, supermodel wife in Gisele Bundchen and other trappings of a jet-setter lifestyle? Or Tim Tebow, the home-schooled Floridian, son of evangelical missionaries and run-minded leader who confesses to one 'vice': vanilla ice cream?

It's a timely question for a number of reasons, one being that neither has begun a full exploitation of his commercial potential.Continue reading...