American Idol winner David Cook has recently signed on to be the next spokesperson for Skechers.

Cook is the first male celebrity to promote the shoe company since 2002, with actor Robert Downey Jr. Cook is also the second American Idol winner to pose in the ads after country Grammy singer Carrie Underwood in 2005.

Skechers will feature the singer in various ads through December of next year in a campaign that will portray personality, interests and appeal.

Launching in Fall ‘08, the campaign coincides with the “PopTarts American Idols Live! Tour 2008,” and the debut of David’s first post-Idol album on 19 Recordings/RCA Records.

Skechers’ Cook campaign will include print, outdoor and in-store. Cook says:

“I have always viewed Skechers as a cool company, so I am excited to be a part of their campaign. They’ve had some sensational singers like Carrie Underwood and Christina Aguilera as they were starting out and it will be great to be a part of the Skechers roster.”

Michael Greenberg, president of Skechers, said:

“We are thrilled that David will be representing Skechers in our marketing campaigns around the world. As a dynamic performer with a friendly, approachable personality, he’s a perfect fit for the Skechers brand and an exciting next step for our tradition of successful partnerships with emerging music stars.”

”The crossing-over of fashion and music is beneficial to both industries, and benefits the stars and the brands associated with them. For this reason, we have invested in such phenomenal stars as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Carrie Underwood, Ashlee Simpson, and now, David Cook.”

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Rocker, David Cook, triumphed over his competitor David Archuleta last night and rightfully claimed the “American Idol” title.

While the judges Tuesday crowned Archuleta the winner of the three singing rounds, the voters decided otherwise and in a huge unexpected way. Ryan Seacrest announced that Cook won by 12 million votes.

Right before the winner was announced, Simon Cowell said that he wanted to apologize to Cook because looking back at the tape, the competition “wasn’t quite so clear cut as we called it.” He felt he was on the verge of being disrespectful when he commented on how stupid it was for David Cook to pick the final song he sang. He also said that both guys deserved to be there and for the first time in American Idol history, he really didn’t care who won.

When Ryan announced Cook’s name, he became overwhelmed with emotion. Bending down and coming back up with tear filled eyes, the second time in many nights that the scruffy-faced rocker broke down.

“This is amazing,” he said. “This is all your fault,” he added, addressing his brother, Andrew. The story goes that Cook was only tagging along with his sibling to the “Idol” auditions to lend support, and wound up getting on the show.

To close out the show, Cook took the mic one last time on the American Idol stage and sang his new single “Time of My Life,” a song written by Nashville singer/songwriter Reggie Hamm, winner of the annual “Idol” songwriting competition.

“If I had to choose between playing a song that not a whole lot of people know that I could get behind, or the opposite, I’ll choose the lesser-known every time,” Cook told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.

While “Idol” ratings were down all season, the final contest turned that tide. The viewership of Tuesday’s show went up 3 percent over last year’s performance finale. The David competition provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5 million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year’s total vote count was 74 million.

*For those David Cook fans, here is David Cook in a Guitar Hero commercial, Risky Business style.

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This is a hard battle. I have no idea which David is going to win tonight on American Idol. Due to yesterdays judges decision, the winner should be David Archuleta. But in my opinion, based on the performances, I think that David Cook should win.

My money is on David Archuleta. He is a 16 year-old power house, who sings ballads so beautifully and has been consistent every week. The only problem is that it seems like he can only sing ballads. When he tries to sing up beat pop songs he just sounds off, like he can’t keep up with the melody. So I don’t know exactly what he has to offer record wise.

I would love, love, love it if David Cook won. I have been a fan of his since he sang Lionel Richie’s Hello. And although some of his performances haven’t been that good, I must admit, when he sang Billie Jean and Eleanor Rigby, he got me excited about competition again. And like he said last night, this competition is about growth as an artist, and he has truely grown more than Archuleta has.

Both of these singers are phenomenal. I don’t think it really matters who actually wins. Both of their albums I’m sure will be great. But if Archuleta doesn’t win he can always follow Clay Aiken’s footsteps and do Broadway.

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Syesha Mercado was voted off “American Idol” Wednesday night, leaving the two Davids. David Archuleta, the 17-year-old singing prodigy from Murray, Utah and David Cook, the former bartender from Blue Springs, Mo. with a “rocker” edge.

This reminds me of the second season when Kimberly was voted off and it was between Clay and Ruben, and we all know how that turned out….

Paula could have signed Syesha’s death warrant when her comments weren’t the usual glowing praise she doled out in the past. Paula was always Syesha’s #1 fan and even brought tears to the singers eyes when stumbling Paula gave her a standing ovation last week.

sigh

Fear not young Syesha, your powerful voice and strong stage presence will take you far!

So which David do YOU think it will be??? David A. or David B.

Check out this Video

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American Idol contestant David Cook was rushed to the hospital last night after experiencing what he described as heart palpitations. Medics said that his blood pressure was “far too high” and that he needed to get treated. Cook said he wouldn’t leave until the show was over.Cook received medics to bring his blood pressure down and after a few hours was released from the hospital according to TMZ. People magazine reports that when Cook was brought back to his Idol apartment to rest, that he appeared to be “doing fine.”TMZ has also reported that Cook has been under a lot of pressure due to his brother’s battle with cancer, and in an earlier show, he collapsed before performing. Despite not feeling well enough to continue, he performed anyways and probably sang the best performance of the night.Ah poor David. He is by far my favorite Idol contestant this season. I hope he gets better and and plenty of rest because it is only going to get more stressful and challenging from here on out.Here is David’s performance of Dolly Parton’s Little Sparrow, before he was taken to the hospital:

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