A Chicago pastry chef grabbed a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records this week when he assembled a 20-foot, 8-inch tall skyscraper with a dark chocolate infrastructure and white chocolate windows in the kickoff event of the Food Network's "Guinness World Record Breakers Week." Well-known for providing chefs with competitions, the net had never attempted a world record before. "We've had lots of successful partnerships with a series of businesses, so we thought we'd do something really cool, says Susie Fogelson, vice president-marketing at the Food Network. "We know Guinness has thousands of food records, but we …

Porn mag Penthouse is trying to relaunch itself as an upscale, slightly more explicit version of Maxim and the other lad books. "We're in the middle of a brand reinvention," says Publisher Diane Silberstein. Until around 2004, Penthouse was long regarded as hardcore Playboy, with far more graphic, often fetishistic, pictorials than the older magazine. But with the rise of the Internet, porn buffs drifted toward a huge library of free images available online and the major adult magazine brands--Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler--suffered circulation and ad revenue declines. Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York-based magazine …

Nautilus CEO Gregg Hammann takes a lead role in his company's new ad campaign, a departure from ads that focused only on fitness products. Ads set to roll this weekend on national cable feature Hammann, a former receiver for the University of Iowa football team, pushing exercise as the solution to the country's obesity problem. "Seven out of 10 Americans are overweight," he says. "Fad diets, pills, and gimmicky products are not solving the problem. And the truth is, most folks want to get in shape but don't know how. Well, there is an answer. The key to lasting weight …

SiCap Industries has pulled its controversial "Sinus Buster" ads on Sirius Satellite Radio, even though the company says the spots caused an "extreme spike in sales." In the commercial, a talk-show host touts the benefits of the products with the line: "The best shit that ever was ... Sinus Buster." Sirius initially aired the commercial uncensored, but then bleeped out the offending word. SiCap says Sirius has been forced to censor the spot, thanks to a "calculated negative publicity campaign perpetrated against them by the media." But it will still advertise on the system since management has been very supportive …

Advertising that uses kids' sexuality for commercial gain is on the rise in Australia, as big retailers lend an air of respectability to "corporate pedophilia," according to recent research. More businesses are finding it acceptable to eroticize young models--increasing children's risk from sexual predators and robbing them of their childhood, the Australia Institute says. Its director, Clive Hamilton, finds it particularly troubling that the trend has entered the mainstream, and has attacked major retail chains for contributing to it. "When family department stores show no conscience on these issues, or are inured to the effects of their behavior, the …

Lionsgate Films has come up with an unusual campaign for its slice 'em up movie "Saw III"--it has arranged a blood drive in 25 markets and persuaded actor Tobin Bell, who plays the villain Jigsaw, to donate his own blood for a poster. While a first for Hollywood, the idea is not completely without precedent, as Adidas drew blood from members of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team and mixed it with ink that was used to make posters. Lionsgate executives say they wanted to do something unusual for the film and focus on the villain in the …

Ratings for post-season baseball on Fox and ESPN have not been very hot, and may well get worse. With the Detroit Tigers' knocking out the New York Yankees, there's only one major-market team left in the playoffs--the New York Mets. And they just don't draw like the Yankees on television. So baseball is facing the possibility of yet another record-low performance for the playoffs, just two years after the Boston Red Sox's World Series victory revived the ratings. Boston missed the playoffs this time out--as did the defending champs, the Chicago White Sox. So as the American and National League …

Howard Stern is going to unleash a raunchy ad campaign to push his Howard TV video-on-demand channel. The effort will hit men's magazines, New York City taxi tops and "testosterone-pumped Web sites" to tout a free promotional weekend on the Net. The Stern free for all--actually it will cost 1 cent--will run from November 3-5. The charge is there just to limit the number of younger viewers, who would be forced to go through several steps and content warnings before placing an order. The goal is to garner new subscribers. The centerpiece of Howard TV, launched by In Demand in …

"Mr. Meaty," Nickelodeon's latest kids' show has already upset some vegetarians. Online petitions have been springing up since the September premiere demanding cancellation of the program, about a pair of puppets who work at a mall restaurant and sell sandwiches like Fillet-O-Seal. Though animal lovers are irate, the kids are happy. It is already a hit with kids 2-11, ranking in the top 11 on cable and broadcast its first two weeks. Nickelodeon first put some shorts on its broadband site, TurboNick, and they were such a success that the network asked series creators Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley to …

With the general election just weeks away, Florida's broadcasts and mailboxes are awash with political advertising. And while some candidates don't have enough money to keep their ad machine going, their political parties do. They are using a concept called three-pack advertising to give candidates more exposure: A political party broadcasts or publishes an ad featuring three of its candidates and two are usually only mentioned in the tiny type at the bottom of a mailer or at the end of a spot. But as long as they show up somewhere in the ad, the politician who is most prominently …