Louis C.K. (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

By STAN SCHROEDER, Mashable.com

Comedian Louis CK has managed to earn $1 million in just 12 days, selling the video of his standup performance for $5 directly through his website. Louis, who has put various social media channels to use when promoting the video, will give some of the money to various charities, and keep only a smaller part for himself.

This article first appeared on mashable.com.

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By TODD WASSERMAN, Mashable.com

McDonald’s is crowdsourcing 10 mini movies that it will post online in January when it launches McBites.

The fast food chain is offering a total of $35,000 in prizes for consumers who come up with winning ideas for 30-second films about McBites. Creators of the 10 winning ideas will get $250 each. The maker of the top video will get $15,000 and other winning videos will be awarded lesser amounts.

The bite-sized format is designed to mirror the appeal of McBites as tiny snacks. McDonald’s is also looking for ideas that underscore the “on the go” nature of McBites, says Rick Wion, director of social media for McDonald’s. McBites, a chicken snack, is designed to fit in a car’s cup-holder and is the latest example of what’s known in the industry as “cupholder cuisine.” McDonald’s is working with Tongal, a video crowdsourcing firm, on the project.

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By TODD WASSERMAN, Mashable.com

The Modern Media Agency Series is supported by IDG. The surge in smartphone use raises important issues for both marketers and media companies. IDG Global Solutions President Matthew Yorke discusses mobile developments and what they mean for marketers and media. Read more here.

At first blush, it seemed an odd pairing: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the ad agency whose calling card was edgy Burger King ads featuring a King with an immobile face, and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, a product best known as comfort food for kids.

Yet the two admittedly disparate parties made it work. The Kraft brand proved it could adapt to the social media age, and Crispin showed it could work its magic on any brand.

It all started in March 2010, when Kraft brought the agency on board. “We were absolutely looking for a creative approach,” says Noelle O’Mara, senior brand manager on Kraft Mac & Cheese, who dismissed the idea that the two were strange bedfellows. “Over time, this brand really started to stand for kid food, but we felt everyone should feel permission to enjoy it, not just kids.”

The result was a campaign themed, “You know you love it,” whose premise was that adults like Mac & Cheese as much as kids do. In one ad, for instance, a policeman is speaking before a class, and a kid asks what happens to people who steal. The cop says that such people go to jail. Smash cut to the kid at home with his dad. After Dad grabs some Mac & Cheese off the boy’s plate, cop cars appear outside the window, sirens whirring.

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Image via Wikipedia

By ADAM OSTROW, Mashable.com

30 Rock star Alec Baldwin took to his Twitter account hours before the opening of The Emmy Awards to let fans know that FOX had removed a joke he made about the News Corp phone hacking scandal from the show’s opening sketch.

Baldwin tweeted that, “Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke. Which sucks bc I think it would have made them look better. A little.” He added, “I understand News Corp killing that joke.”

According to Deadline Hollywood, which first reported the change to Sunday’s opening sketch, Baldwin asked FOX to remove him from the skit entirely after learning that the phone hacking joke had been removed. FOX in turn replaced Baldwin with Leonard Nimoy, who Deadline reports re-filmed the skit, minus the joke.

SEE ALSO: Watch the 2011 Emmys Live With Mashable

The News Corp scandal dominated the media world earlier this year following revelations that The News of the World hacked into the voicemail of a missing girl in the UK, giving the family false hope that she was still alive. That case resulted in the closure of the tabloid paper, News Corp dropping its bid for BSkyB and ongoing investigations into the reporting practices of the media giant.

This article first appeared on Mashable.com.

By ZACHARY SNIDERMAN, Mashable.com

Charlie Sheen, the Grand Warlock of insanity, is getting the full Comedy Central Roast experience. Sheen will surrender himself to the vulgar praise and deep insults only a dais of angry comedians can dish out. While the roast actually took place last weekend, it won’t air until Sunday night.

Comedy Central was not content to let the crazy speak for itself, and has therefore relaunched and re-developed a set of social tools to get the audience more engaged than ever before. Anyone who watched Sheen’s promo vids or spotted online ads was immediately supplied with two main hashtags: #SheenRoast and #CrazyTrain. Comedy Central is incorporating those into a digital dashboard where fans can play along, comment, interact with other participants and share with their social networks.

We stopped by Comedy Central for an advance preview of the new dashboard, and to talk about how digital is the new frontier for the network.

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By TODD WASSERMAN, Mashable.com

LivingSocial launched a 50% off deal at Whole Foods Markets Tuesday, in its highest profile deal since it offered the same discount at Amazon in January.

Visitors to LivingSocial’s site or recipients of the company’s emails are eligible for the offer, which gives $20 worth of the chain’s groceries for $10. In addition, 5% of the proceeds from the promotion will go toward the Whole Kids Foundation, which supports schools and aims to inspire families to improve children’s nutrition and wellness.

A rep for LivingSocial says this is the first time a national grocer has offered a daily deal with any company.

At presstime, close to 200,000 people had signed up. At the current rate, LivingSocial is on track to tie or eclipse the 1 million-plus vouchers it sold for the Amazon deal.

This story first appeared at Mashable.com.