• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 10, 2008

Stock market in free-fall? Don't worry. Fox Business News would like to get your mind off things.

A new outdoor ad for a Fox Business campaign offers up what we love best about all News Corp. properties: A little sex to make us forget our troubles -- such as that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is now at its lowest levels since October  2006.

One New York City billboard offers up the distracting message: "The Future of Business News Has Arrived. See What You Are Missing." Featured prominently are photos of seven attractive, smiling female business journalists in a lineup shot that is less Victoria's Secret and more beauty pageant.

Using sex has never been a secret in advertising -- and using proper credentials can be boring. I'm sure these on-air reporters have the latter as well.

The bottom line, not so subtly revealed here, is -- What? Business can be sexy, and not boring.

As far as I can tell CNBC, which still owns a huge market share of the TV business journalism marketplace, isn't going in the same Foxy direction. Could that be a problem?

Recent February ratings for CNBC -- when the market was doing its big dramatic downward gyrations -- have shown double-digit decreases during its daytime programming for its key 25-54 viewers. Total viewers, however, are 20% higher during the same daytime programming.

That must mean the network is adding older viewers. It's far less likely CNBC's audience is getting younger. So by this account, CNBC probably needs to do more stories on the lingerie business -- complete with videos and models.

Fox Business Channel says it's all about what people are thinking on "Main Street," not "Wall Street," when it comes to business. In many ways that's a good approach -- personalizing business news for the average investor with a 401K or someone who is just an average worker looking to get ahead.

But perhaps even Fox got it wrong: The network isn't traveling down Main Street; rather, it's the sunnier side of the street.