ESPN's new Michael Jordan commercial, above, features a different Jordan, hilariously.

Below, P&G's new Tide commercial promotes its support of US athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games, T-Mobile spokesmodel ditches the pink dress, Planters goes nuts with Men's Health, and more new campaigns:Continue reading...

You're running McDonald's and you're the world's most successful fast-food chain, growing lately all over the world. That would seem to indicate an ever-expanding (no pun intended) audience of consumers worldwide who want to partake of your burgers, fries, salads and smoothies — right?

Yet across the United States and halfway across the world, more folks seem to be falling all over themselves demanding that McDonald's stay as far away from them as possible. Blame an obesity fixation.

In the U.K., for example, a leading medical academic (acamedic? or in this case, activist-medic) is calling McDonald's "unhelpful" for being a leading sponsor of the London Olympics this summer, along with another "unhelpful" corporate ogre, that Coca-Cola Company.Continue reading...

Never mind its sponsorship-based spat with rival Nike ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games. As part of its official Olympic sponsorship, Adidas has launched "Take the Stage" as an invitation to fans and Olympic Games visitors to "show us something with heart, something with passion and this slot could be yours."

The campaign — which aims to give undiscovered talent (namely, 32 teenagers from London's boroughs) the chance of a lifetime on the platform of a lifetime, at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games — launched on April 7 on ITV1's Britain's Got Talent show.Continue reading...

Amazon looms as nemesis of book publishers, as children's book publisher pulls its titles.

Apple denies designer Philippe Starck's claim of 'revolutionary' device.

Arby's makes social media blunder over Rush Limbaugh advertising.

Archie comics legal battle heats up.

Audi may select its North American plant site this week, with Mexico the favorite, Automotive News says.

CBS emphasizes hard news to regain an edge.

Citigroup reports better-than-expected revenue growth.Continue reading...

Big-name fashion designers are flocking to the Olympics this summer, with host country talent Stella McCartney leading the way, in partnership with Adidas, as the chief designer for the United Kingdom’s squad. There have been a few naysayers to McCartney’s designs, but fashion designers have got to be pretty used to that by the time they hit the big-time.

Now word comes, via the Telegraph, that Prada is getting into the Olympics gear, designing uniforms for Italy’s Olympic and Paralympic sailing teams.Continue reading...

If the Tube system in London confuses you already, you might want to skip heading to England for the Olympics this summer. Just to confuse you a little more, a new map has come out of the Underground with 361 station stops renamed for Olympic greats.

The map is being sold on Transport for London's website prior to the 2012 Summer Games. Each subway stop of the London Underground Olympics Legend map is "renamed" for athletes from different sport, so one is all swimming while another is all track and field. The map was designed by former BBC sports journalist Alex Trickett and sports historian David Brooks.

The duo chose an American athlete to represent the main Olympic venue's stop: swimmer Michael Phelps, whose 14 gold medals make him the most successful Olympian of all time. The station nearby is Cassius Clay, named for the famed boxer who fought in the 1960 Olympics of Rome and won gold before changing his name to Muhammad Ali. Longtime rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are next to each other, with Fed getting the bigger tube stop.Continue reading...

In a bid to outdo last year's April Fool's Day jokes, a few April Foolin' Around branded fake gags today include:

• Richard Branson's next adventure, Virgin Volcanic, will take the intrepid billionaire to the center of the earth with Tom Hanks;

• in addition to really advanced search and Google TV Click, perennial prankster Google brings its self-driving car to NASCAR racing (above) and, below, announces Morse Code-based Gmail Tap (double your typing speed!) with LL Cool J, plus 8-bit Google Maps for the neglected Nintendo Entertainment System, and more:Continue reading...

Is this a tempest in a teacup? Stella McCartney's Team Great Britain Adidas-produced gear for the London 2012 summer Olympics has a few of her fellow Brits up in arms. The reason? Too much blue in the Union Jack and not enough red for some tastes.