A friend emailed me some ads for Goldstar, an Israeli beer. The tagline for the campaign is “Thank God you’re a man.” After the jump, see the ads and why I’m thanking God I’m a woman.

Is it just me, or is this VW ad ... creepy? Copyranter reports this odd Volkswagen campaign was birthed in Lebanon, where a “new brood of Beetles was apparently only available by ‘special delivery.’” I guess they have some pretty big auto-wombs over there. It sure looks like it’s going to hurt coming out, doesn’t it? Copyranter suggests that if this ad ran in the States, people would have conniption fits. What do you think? Does this image make you want to buy a VW Beetle—or glue your thighs together forever and ever? (You can eye the ad in jumbo-size here.) [Copyranter]

Nastia Liukin gets to do the coolest stuff now that she’s a big-time Olympic medalist. As if playing herself in an episode of “Gossip Girl,” being in a CoverGirl ad, sitting in the front row at fashion shows, and getting a Wheaties box weren’t enough, Liukin will also be the face (and very flexible body) of Max Azria’s spring campaign. “The spring collection was inspired by movement and modern dance so she was perfect,” said Lubov Azria, creative director. We might resent some girls for this kind of success, but Nastia just seems nice, not nasty. [WWD]

A 50-year-old Madonna will be the new face of luxury brand’s Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2009 collection. The idea to use Madonna came to Marc Jacobs, the label’s creative director, while watching her concert in Paris last year. “I just blurted out, ‘I think we should do Madonna,’” he said. “I was totally just blown away by it, and moved by her performance, by what she had to say, and her energy.” He sent her a text asking if she’d be interested, she replied, “I’d love to,” and she was quickly reunited with photographer Steven Meisel, who took the pictures for her infamous Sex book in 1992. Madonna resurrects the whole underwear-as-outerwear schtick in Meisel’s shots of her wearing fishnet tights and LV lingerie in a smoky French bistro setting. In another one of the six campaign images, Madonna actually dons a jacket.

Antoine Arnault, Louis Vuitton’s communications director, explained their choice in the Queen of Pop: “Madonna is glamorous. She has a global image. She’s the ultimate performer and businesswoman, and not someone who is just a famous singer. She has travelled. She has tried to change things.”

The more-than-famous singer was reportedly paid $10 million for her hard day’s work but Arnault has denied the figure, saying the real fee was “very far away from that.” Hopefully, she got to keep the panties. [Telegraph.co.uk]

Ads that use gorgeous, half-naked women to sell products are totally lame. Why couldn’t the advertising agency come up with something a little more original to sell their client’s beer, aftershave, or clothes? Despite these feelings, we just came across an ad that ran in P-magazine, a Belgian men’s magazine, and it’s so clever we don’t care that it shows a stunning woman in her underwear. Keep reading to see the full ad…

David Beckham may be one of the best things to have happened to the game of soccer since cleats were invented, but he’s also one of the best things to have happened to advertising since the dawn of modern media…at least in my book. I mean, have you seen his nearly nude Armani ads? [Now you have! See above!—Editor]

Well, if the European Parliament has anything to do with it, our friends on the other side of the pond may not have the good fortune of gazing at Beckham’s chiseled abs in glossies and on the sides of buses for much longer. Earlier this month, the Parliament voted in favor of a report drafted by the Women’s Rights Committee that aims to more tightly monitor nudity in marketing campaigns and to end the use of gender stereotypes.

ABC News has a big story out today that talks about sex in advertising. American Apparel, BMW, and Gossip Girl are just a few of the latest brands to embrace carnal desire in print ads, but they’re taking it a step farther by putting people who look very young in provocative positions to draw attention to their products.

Currently, I am majorly obsessed with the show Mad Men on AMC. If you haven’t seen it, you must give it a go, before the second season starts in a month. The show is about the advertising men on Madison Avenue during the early 1960s and is just brilliantly written and art directed. One of the most fascinating aspects to the show is seeing what it was like for the working women who were secretaries at the agencies—Mad Men features some of the most interesting female characters I’ve seen on TV in awhile, including Joan, the head secretary at Sterling-Cooper, the show’s fictional ad agency. Her portrayer, Christina Hendricks, is a goddess, and does a remarkable job showing the the complexity of a character who tries to maintain power in the workplace using her sexuality. In this clip, Joan’s roommate tries to tell her she’s hot for her.

The billboard company responsible for advertising the Sex and the City movie decided not to hang posters or billboards in Jerusalem or Petah Tikva because of the two cities’ large religious populations. Residents of Jerusalem and Petah Tikva are very lucky. [Jerusalem Post]