Cadbury Schweppes--the world's largest confectionery maker--plans to split its confectionery and American drinks businesses either through a de-merger or the sale of the drinks unit. The choice will be announced on June 19. The core confectionery side will contain Dairy Milk chocolate and Trident chewing gum, while the soft-drinks side will own the Dr Pepper and Snapple brands. Analysts say private-equity groups like Lion Capital and Blackstone might now bid for the soft-drinks side, while Kraft Foods, Hershey and even Wm. Wrigley Jr. could be interested in the confectionery products. Cadbury disclosed on Tuesday that U.S. activist investor Nelson …

Film producer Harvey Weinstein's The Weinstein Company is acquiring Halston--the legendary fashion brand--in partnership with Hilco Consumer Capital, a private-equity firm. Tamara Mellon, the president of the luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo, brought the deal to Mr. Weinstein and will help provide creative direction. The deciding factor in the acquisition was "the iconic nature of the Halston brand," Weinstein says, "and seeing how far ahead of his time Halston the man was." James J. Ammeen, the principal shareholder of Neema, the previous owners, said its strategy has been to separate it from its history. Ammeen, who was Halston's …

Nike announced yesterday that it is going to "re-evalute" its creative resources and partnerships, confirming that it will expand its creative agency roster and move some pieces of business away from longtime agency Wieden + Kennedy. Nike spent $220 million in measured media in the U.S. in 2006 and $200 million in 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Rumors are that the running shoe account will be the first up for grabs, but executives close to Nike said the relatively small baseball account may actually have already been reassigned. Dean Stoyer, Nike's U.S. media relations director, …

Insurance and real estate--out-of-home advertising's second-biggest category--grew 26.2% last year, leading the way to an overall increase of 8% in revenue for the medium. Total spending was $6.8 billion, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. With new digital technologies springing up every day, ad spending in out-of-home has grown 68% over the past decade--the second fastest-growing ad segment behind the Internet. Among the top 10 ad categories, spending was up 10% and six increased ad budgets. The medium's largest category--local services and amusements--remained the No. 1 category, up 16.4% to more than $1 billion. Categories …

Procter & Gamble's Folgers has opened a new flank in the coffee war: a "stomach friendly" brew called Simply Smooth for java lovers that think they can no longer handle the hard stuff. Folgers is aiming Simply Smooth at what it estimates are the 35 million to 40 million Americans who say they have cut back on coffee consumption--or eliminated it--because it bothers their stomachs. Other, smaller manufacturers are also offering easy-on-the-stomach coffees, including Gentle Java from Coffee Legends and Puroast Low Acid Coffee. Coffee companies are not the only ones heading in that direction. Orange juice--another …

Revolution--America Online co-founder Stephen Case's private investment company--is launching a new payment system called GratisCard next month that aims to loosen the grip of Visa and MasterCard on the credit and debit-card industry. GratisCard will use the Internet to lower transaction fees paid by retailers and, Case hopes, increase access to credit and debit cards for lower-income shoppers as well as consumers with bad credit. To entice merchants to accept GratisCard, the company plans to charge just 0.5% of the cost of a purchase. Visa and Mastercard debit cards charged fees at a rate of 1.75%. Facing banks …

More than a dozen states are considering do-not-mail lists that will allow consumers to sign a list to be free of "junk mail" forever. None of the bills have made it beyond the hearing stage, however. The Direct Marketing Association is laying out reasons to fight the bills, ranging from unconstitutionality to the economic impact on both the $900 billion direct-mail industry and the Postal Service. But court battles and appeals to free speech have proved to be temporary solutions at best when the public and politicians become determined to tackle a marketer (tobacco) or a method (you …

After just three months on the job, August Busch IV--"The Fourth," as he is called--is forging new relationships and cooperative agreements with an outstretched hand. He's trying to reshape Anheuser-Busch as a beverage and distribution business, not just a beer company. Busch seeks input from all corners of the company to achieve his goals. In addition to regular meetings with senior executives, every manager at Anheuser-Busch is available by BlackBerry and cell phone as needed. Conventional office hours don't exist. His A-team is Anheuser-Busch's Strategy Committee, a group of 16 senior executives responsible for setting the company's …

Elaine Kolish--who spent 25 years at the Federal Trade Commission and has been head of its Division of Enforcement in the Bureau of Consumer Protection--is the new director of the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. She joins the CBBB--a joint effort between 11 food companies and the Council of Better Business Bureaus--on March 19. The participating CBBB companies are Cadbury Schweppes; Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Masterfoods, McDonald's, PepsiCo and Unilever. They will submit to Kolish specific plans on how their brands will follow the program's new guidelines, which were designed to tighten …

In an effort to battle an overall slump in sales, the country's two top guitar makers--Gibson Guitar and Fender Musical Instruments--have debuted lines with a girl/woman-friendly focus. Gibson has introduced the thinner-necked, lighter-weight Les Paul Vixen and Les Paul Goddess guitars. Fender has its Hello Kitty guitars, with the iconic cat splashed across the bodies. Women playing guitar is nothing new. Joan Jett, Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow have been fierce players for years. But for the most part, revered guitar gods have been men, including Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Now, guitar-playing singers, such as Avril Lavigne …