Online dating site Chemistry.com is taking shots at eHarmony.com, with new ads showing its larger competitor as being out of touch with mainstream America. The ads, which roll out this week, will first appear in weekly newspapers and magazines. And they pointedly note eHarmony's refusal to match people of the same gender and the evangelical Christian beliefs of its founder, Neil Clark Warren. Chemistry.com has hit this theme before, with a set of ads earlier this year called "Rejected by eHarmony" that featured lovelorn people turned away from eHarmony for either being gay, not happy enough or unmatchable. Chemistry.com spent …

Crown Imports, which owns U.S. rights to Modelo Especial, has big ad plans for the Mexican beer, ready to push it beyond the Hispanic market to a general audience. With ads in male-oriented magazines such as Esquire, Golf, Wired and Rolling Stone, Crown is trying to attract drinkers who sample many beers--and to also position Modelo as a high-class quaff. Executions feature drawings of Mayan foot soldiers hoisting it, with the tagline: "Let it be served." But while Crown faces tough competition from "craft" and other brands old and new, executives are encouraged by recent sales growth that could …

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is sticking behind the religious tone of his recent campaign ad. "You can find Santa at every mall," he says. "You can find discounts in every store. But if you mention the name of Jesus, as I found out recently, it upsets the whole world." The preacher and former governor of Arkansas refers to his spot -- now on-air in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- that has him in front of a Christmas tree asking. In it, he asks: "Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you've been …

Panasonic parent Matsushita is set to roll out a 150-inch plasma HDTV next month. Billed as the world's largest TV, the enormous tube will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. Panasonic introduced a 103-inch set at CES 2006; Sharp topped it with a 108-inch model shortly thereafter. Pricing on Panasonic's mega-tube has yet to be determined, but it is expected to be available in 2009. A 150-inch screen -- two meters by 3.5 meters -- is large enough to display a full-scale adult.

Hot on the heels of its acquisition of Dow Jones, News Corp will unload eight of its Fox affiliates to private-equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners for roughly $1.1 billion. The sale will leave Fox with 27 owned-and-operated stations while Oak Hill will add to its nine existing stations. "It is part of News Corp's strategic decision to shed low-growth, non-core assets," says Richard Dorfman, managing director of New York-based investment firm Richard Alan. And for Oak Hill, the buy is "a classic private-equity play," he adds. "Ad dollars are migrating to the Web, but it's a government-licensed …

Aegis Media has hung on to Pernod Ricard's $200 million global media account, fighting off Publicis Groupe's Optimedia and WPP Group's MindShare after a review, according to insiders. The French booze behemoth started the review last summer, about two years after Aegis' Carat won the U.S. business. Some reports out of Europe suggested the company may have been looking to cut costs. Carat keeps the U.S. account, with spend of about $66 million, according to TNS Media Intelligence, while Aegis Media will handle it in seven major European markets, China, the Philippines and Canada. "This win reflects yet …

Two of USA Network's original series, "The 4400" and "Dead Zone," are off the schedule for 2008, ignominious ends for shows that broke viewership records with their debuts. When it premiered in 2002, "Dead Zone" quickly became basic cable's most-viewed series ever, with 6.4 million viewers, but has been on the downswing ever since. In its final season, the dram was pulling just 2.3 million viewers -- about half the average of its rookie year. "The 4400" broke Dead Zone's earlier record, with 7.4 million viewers for the first of its limited season in 2004. That year, it …

MTV has signed on 51 young folks -- one in each state and the District of Columbia -- to cover the 2008 elections with weekly reports, including videos, blogs and animation. The stuff will be distributed through Think.MTV.com, mobile devices and the Associated Press. The arrangement is part of the cable net's "Choose or Lose" political awareness campaign and is funded in part partly by a grant from a private journalism foundation. Participants will be given laptop computers, cell phones and video cameras and sent out to find political stories that resonate with youth.

Curves International is jump-starting the January weight-loss season with a new ad campaign that shifts the focus from shedding unwanted pounds to inspiring and celebrating women. "The Body Campaign," from Publicis Mid America, featuring TV, online and radio and the tagline "Your Curves will amaze you," is set to break next week. "This campaign is the first in which Curves highlights the intensity of the 30-minute workout and makes a claim that the Curves method really works," says Stephanie Ouyoumjian, Curves' director of strategy. Previous campaigns for the Texas-based company were keyed to building awareness of the women-only …

Two conservative columnists have been dumped from Time magazine, with both William Kristol and Charles out the door next month. But the mag is hardly turning left: Insiders say it is in talks with National Review editor and author of "The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life," Ramesh Ponnuru. He has already written twice for Time in the last month. The reasons for the firings of Krauthammer and Kristol, both of whom stridently back the unpopular war in Iraq, are unclear. "I was very happy to work with them," says …