Bally Total Fitness has rolled out a new campaign that follows the course of an actual club member as he loses weight, lowers his cholesterol and improves his overall lifestyle. The effort will feature 60-second spots on cable networks, along with print in Health magazine, online, direct mail and point-of-purchase at the company's 400-plus locations. Spending was not revealed, but Bally forked over $74 million on media in 2005 and $54 million in the first six months of this year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. In the TV spot, the subject, named Dan, explains: "The men in my family don't live …

The men of the CNBC talk show "Fast Money," a quartet of financial traders, run a pumped-up, sound-effects-laden dissection of the day's business news that comes at a critical time for the network. After running for 13 weeks this summer, the show is being tested in different time periods before it gains a permanent berth. It is CNBC's latest attempt to regain some momentum, particularly in the hours after the closing bell rings. Its ratings have plummeted in recent years, as disillusioned day traders fled a tumbling market. But with the Dow returning to health--and Fox News Channel inching closer …

India will bid to secure the International Cricket Council's global media and marketing rights to the game for the next eight years. "We have successfully sold our own rights, and I am confident we can do well with the global rights also," says Niranjan Shah, the secretary for Board of Control for Cricket in India. " We have informed the ICC of our intention." The group's current $550 million deal for seven years is with Global Cricket Corp., a venture owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, but it expires after next year's World Cup in the Caribbean. The new pact, …

Senator George Allen is trying to steer his campaign away from accusations of racial insensitivity with a two-minute statewide TV ad stressing the need to focus on "the real issues." The Virginia Republican, who has been caught on tape using ethnic slurs, bought air time in every television market just before prime time in an effort to save his political career. The ad acknowledges that he has brought on some of his own problems, but he says "the negative personal attacks and baseless allegations have also pulled us away from what you expect and deserve." With his wife at his …

When an advertiser's relationship with its agencies goes bad, a breakup is usually in order, notes Eric Pfanner in the International Herald Tribune. But some folks in London are upset about a new regulation they worry could threaten this system. At issue is a rule, imposed by the British government this spring, that could require an agency taking on a new account to hire the people who worked on the account at the previous shop. While the law is intended to protect workers, it also threatens to make advertising account shifts prohibitively expensive -- or counterproductive. "Clients move from one …

Bill Hillsman has a history of helping long shots win, which is why he's on the team of Kinky Friedman, now running for governor of Texas, writes the Dallas Morning News. The Minnesota ad whiz used Jesse Ventura's personality in commercials that put him into that state's governorship and Hillsman also helped turn an obscure Minnesota professor named Paul Wellstone into a household name and a U.S. senator. And his quirky TV spots helped lift political unknown Ned Lamont to victory over veteran Sen. Joe Lieberman. So when Friedman launched his first TV ads of the fall campaign, likening himself …

NBC Universal's chief executive says rumors of his early departure are untrue and the creation of rival News Corp., reports Reuters. Bob Wright, CEO of the General Electric unit says there is no truth to several stories about him published by News Corp.'s New York Post. A report published Friday citing unnamed sources repeated the claims of gossip pages, adding that the Wright's heir apparent Jeff Zucker is not a shoo-in as GE chief Jeff Immelt has met with other potential candidates including former Viacom head Tom Freston. "This is some creation of News Corp," Wright says. "They have created …

Not long after big pharma started direct-to-consumer ads, Ad Age remembers that then-FDA commissioner David Kessler had a warning for drugmakers: "Your companies likely will face lawsuits eventually about the claims they make for their products in television commercials," he said at the time. "One day in a courtroom, I assure you, one of you is going to have your DTC ads played." His words, spoken in 1998, turned out to be prescient. DTC drug advertising has grown to a $4.1 billion ad category spanning some 70 drugs and, as predicted, it's also become a lightning rod for political and …

As Fox goes on a one-month prime-time entertainment hiatus with the start of postseason Major League Baseball, the network is already up low double-digit percentages in its ratings and viewers, reports Mediaweek. And if its strategy of rolling out new shows in August has yet to yield any breakout hits, it has a few doing well enough to make it through the entire season. And that, the magazine notes, has Fox executives breathing easier. "As long as American Idol doesn't decline, they'll be right in the middle of the network races," said Steve Sternberg, executive VP of audience analysis at …