-WPP gets in bed with Vice. link

-Mars fared well in Ace Metrix’s list of most effective Q1 TV ads. link

-Jay-Z launched an original content site, complete with editors and all, called Life and Times. link

-Spike Lee will receive the Promax BDA Lifetime Achievement Award. link

-This Thursday, Apr. 7, Philly will celebrate the 78th anniversary of the end of Prohibition with the help of some TuB Gin (above).

-The GOP is responding to President Obama‘s 2012 campaign launch via social media. link

-American Apparel’s Dov Charney says, “we’re not going bankrupt.” Phew. link

-Havas Digital was named digital AOR for The Economist. link

-China bans the word “luxury” from ads. link

As part of the 53rd annual telecast of the Grammy Awards on Sunday, HP is launching its “Everybody On” campaign. Along with rock legend Lou Reed, R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys is getting in on the campaign, explaining how HP’s technology helps her transfer the organic sound from her piano at home with her on tour and beyond.

Keys’ collaboration with hip-hop impresario Jay-Z (who appeared in HP’s “Hands” campaign) “Empire State of Mind” is up for Record of the Year at the Grammys, and the song plays throughout the two-minute spot. The HP TouchPad will also have its own role in the Grammy telecast displaying what’s coming next in the show as part of CBS/Grammy bumpers that will air live during the awards.

So, if you need some sort of reason to watch the Grammys other than the music (don’t worry, Carlos Santana isn’t nominated for anything major this year), you can always watch for the HP product placement. Or, maybe you can cheer on Chrysler/Brisk as their spokesperson, Eminem, takes home Album of the Year honors for Recovery. Isn’t watching the music industry celebrate itself fun?

The decision engine from Microsoft we all know as Bing along with Droga5 are launching a multi-platform search experience and interactive game that’s tied to Jay-Z’s upcoming memoir, Decoded. If fans of the music mogul can step away from Google for a sec, they can now use Bing and decide how to find the very locations that inspired the Hova’s lyrics.

The online experience utilizes multiple facets of Bing, including Bing Maps and Bing Entertainment, to give fans full access to the stories behind Jay-Z’s songs. Over the course of a month, fans will come together as a community to compile Decoded online before it hits bookshelves.

Ads for Decoded have been placed on 600 unique traditional, nontraditional and digital advertising placements (comprised of pages from the book) in 15 cities around the world. As an added bonus, every participant will be entered into a contest for a grand prize that will send one fan to see Jay-Z and Coldplay at their Las Vegas concert on New Year’s Eve.

Decoded, which lands in stores November 16, is being released by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group.

More: Droga5 Moves Five

The Jigga man himself Jay-Z stars in this “Vote Again 2010” public service announcement for HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization encouraging people to vote in the midterm elections.

“Vote Again 2010″ is a project being organized by over 30 youth organizations and media partners working together to turn out young voters this fall through a website that features creative content, context and a user-generated video contest.

Andy Bernstein, HeadCount’s executive director, says in a statement, “In a year when there is such negativity in this country, Jay-Z’s positive message is jolting and inspirational. When he told the crowd at Bonnaroo ‘We changed the world,’ it was a truly electric moment. Thousands of people got goosebumps, and I knew it would make an unforgettable PSA.”

More: “The Jay-Z Empire State Explored in Full Absolut Vodka Film“