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Dudes don’t drink diet.

Or at least that’s the idea behind Dr. Pepper Ten, a 10-calorie soft drink Dr Pepper Snapple Group is rolling out on Monday with a macho ad campaign that proclaims “It’s not for women.” The soft drink was developed after the company’s research found that men shy away from diet drinks that aren’t perceived as “manly” enough.

To appeal to men, Dr. Pepper made its Ten drink 180 degrees different than Diet Dr. Pepper. It has calories and sugar unlike its diet counterpart. Instead of the dainty tan bubbles on the diet can, Ten will be wrapped in gunmetal grey packaging with silver bullets. And while Diet Dr. Pepper’s marketing is women-friendly, the ad campaign for Ten goes out of its way to eschew women.

For instance, there’s a Dr. Pepper Ten Facebook page for men only. And TV commercials are heavy on the machismo, including one spot that shows muscular men in the jungle battling snakes and bad guys and appear to shoot lasers at each other.

“Hey ladies. Enjoying the film? Of course not. Because this is our movie and this is our soda,” a man says as he attempts to pour the soda into a glass during a bumpy ATV ride. “You can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks. We’re goo

Dr. Pepper Ten is not the first diet soda aimed at men. (Think: Coke Zero and Pepsi Max.) But Dr. Pepper Ten’s ad campaign is the first to be so overt about courting men who want to drink a soda with fewer calories. The ads come at a time when overall sales in the $74 billon soft drink industry are slowing as more Americans buy healthier options like juice and bottled water. Volume has fallen from slightly over 10 billion cases in 2005 to 9.4 billion cases in 2010, according to Beverage Digest data.

“Regular sugared soft drinks have declined in recent years, and some consumers have taste issues with some of the diet sodas,” said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, said.

Dr. Pepper said men, in particular, are dissatisfied with the taste and image of diet drinks guaranteed high risk personal loans. The company wouldn’t disclose the formula of Dr. Pepper Ten, but said that the drink has 10 calories and 2 grams of sugar, which gives it a sweeter taste. Dr Pepper said there are 23 flavors in its regular soda, (which has 150 calories and 27 grams of sugar per can) and Dr. Pepper Ten contains all of them.

The company, which declined to give figures for how much was spent on the campaign, also worked hard to craft a macho message. The company said ads for Dr. Pepper Ten will air on all major networks, FX and ESPN during college football games.

A Facebook page for the drink contains an application that allows it to exclude women from viewing content, which includes games and videos aimed at being “manly.” For instance, there’s a shooting gallery where you shoot things like high heels and lipstick, for example. There is also a “man quiz” with questions on activities like fishing and hunting.

Whether the ads will resonate with men remains to be seen. Paul McDonald, 25, who works in green energy contracts in Berkley, Calif., says he drinks soda labeled diet and doesn’t think there is any stigma attached.

“No one has ever made fun of me for drinking a Diet Coke, and I’m on a rugby team we make fun of each other for everything,” he said.

And women? Jim Trebilcock, executive vice president of marketing for Dr Pepper, said he’s not worried that they’ll be offended by the campaign. The drink and marketing were tested in six different markets across the country before being rolled out nationally, and women weren’t offended, he said. In fact, about 40 percent of people who have tried the soda so far are women.

“Women get the joke,” he said. “`Is this really for men or really for women?’ is a way to start the conversation that can spread and get people engaged in the product.”

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Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will add 5,750 jobs and invest $4.8 billion in its U.S. factories as part of a new contract deal with the United Auto Workers union.

The four-year deal was reached early Tuesday after eight straight days of bargaining. UAW leaders were expected to release further details of the contract later Tuesday at a meeting of union leaders in Detroit. The deal is subject to a vote by union members.

John Fleming, Ford vice president of manufacturing, said most of the new hires will be paid a lower wage than Ford’s older workers. The agreement is expected to lower Ford’s labor costs, which are the highest in the U.S. auto industry.

“The tentative agreement will enable us to improve our overall competitiveness here in the United States,” Fleming told reporters at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn.

Fleming would not give details about where the new jobs would go. He said the jobs are in addition to 7,000 new positions that Ford announced earlier this year. The $4.8 billion in investments is also in addition to $1.4 billion previously announced.

Ford likely matched some of the provisions in the General Motors Co. agreement that was reached last month. The GM deal gives workers $5,000 signing bonuses, $1,000 a year for three years to cover inflation and at least $3,500 in profit-sharing this year. GM was able to avoid a pension increase for the first time since 1953, and Ford’s terms are expected to match that.

The pact still must be approved by Ford’s 41,000 UAW members, who work at 27 plants and other facilities around the country. Voting is expected next week. Approval could be a problem because many expected the company to restore pay raises and other benefits they sacrificed to help Ford through tough financial times starting in 2007.

UAW leaders said the contract keeps Ford’s costs and prices competitive but increases profit sharing.

“UAW members sacrificed when the company was struggling and now will share in Ford’s prosperity,” UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said in a statement.

Up next is Chrysler Group LLC, where the talks could be more contentious. The company isn’t making as much money as Ford and GM and probably can’t afford the same deals.

The UAW talks are watched closely because they set wages for more than 112,000 workers in the auto industry and set the bar for pay at auto parts makers and foreign-owned automakers.

Ford shares fell 22 cents to $9.15 a share in morning trading Tuesday after sinking to a 52-week low of $9.05 earlier in the session.

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Since James Carrington landed the lead role at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the center has seen an infusion of cash, adding to an already impressive endowment. In January, the Danforth Foundation announced its final gift to center

The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses, the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks and guarantees of more union jobs as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.

The deal, reached late Friday, also includes a $2- to $3-per-hour-pay raise for entry-level workers over the life of the contract and the promise of more jobs, the people said.

Both persons asked to remain anonymous because the details of the contract haven’t been reviewed by all local union leaders.

In addition, workers could get profit-sharing checks that are larger than the roughly $4,000 they received based on the company’s earnings last year. But the formula was changed so it is based only on GM’s North American financial results, said the people.

The GM deal will serve as a template for contracts that still must be negotiated with Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. It would set the pay and benefits for 112,500 U.S. auto workers. It also will set the bar for pay and benefits at nonunion auto companies and other industries across the country.

The contract is the first since GM and Chrysler received government bailouts to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009.

The UAW and GM would not give details of the contract. Union President Bob King said Friday that he won’t talk about them until local union leaders are briefed on the pact Tuesday in Detroit.

Workers have to approve the contract before it can take effect. A vote is expected within 10 days.

The union said in a statement Friday that the pact includes some of its major goals, including improvements in profit-sharing, new jobs and better health care benefits.

The deal also will include creative ways to cut GM’s hourly labor costs, which at $56 are still higher than those at nonunion U.S. plants owned by foreign competitors.

GM was the first of the Detroit Three to reach agreement with the UAW. Chrysler is likely to be next, followed by Ford, where little progress has been made in negotiations so far.

The UAW announced the GM agreement just after 11 p.m. EDT Friday, after a little more than seven weeks of closed-door bargaining.

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The world’s largest ticket sellers and the world’s largest social network have created a new interactive venture to let people buy concert and sports tickets near their friends.

Their Facebook friends.

So far, 9,000 events are linked to the interactive seat-selection maps.

“All of our NHL clients are using it. The Air Canada Centre is using it for the Raptors, and we have basic concern configurations done for them,” Kip Levin, executive vice president of E-commerce at Live Nation, told the Star on Thursday.

Live Nation owns Ticketmaster, where North American revenue dropped 11 per cent last year, and new CEO Nathan Hubbard has declared the future lies in social media.

“The Number 1 driver here is just to make the experience better,” said Levin. “A lot of events are social, so it’s valuable to you as a consumer.”

Another driver is the fact that 40 per cent of tickets for some events go unsold on average, often because potential buyers were unaware of the event.

Ticketmaster is hoping concert or game fans will also recommend an upcoming event on Facebook so their friends might know about it and then buy tickets, Levin said.

With this new feature, ticket buyers can tag their seat purchase through their Facebook site. Before they buy a ticket, they can see where other Facebook friends who’ve also tagged their purchases are sitting.

Facebook gets no money from the deal, said Levin, but “our clients have the option of taking the information and extending it into their ad units for sponsored stories.”

Acknowledging Facebook users’ ire over privacy controls, the feature allows a ticket buyer to limit who on Facebook can see their purchase.

The electronically generated information also gives Ticketmaster another level of spurring sales, he said.

“We know you bought Leafs’ tickets in the past, so now we can recommend games that you’ll know you have friends going to.”

About 75 per cent of the people who use Ticketmaster.com also use Facebook, Ticketmaster said on its blog.E

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In between briefings on Libya, President Barack Obama packed golf, beach time, a stop at a seafood restaurant and a visit to a wealthy friend’s seaside compound into his Martha’s Vineyard vacation Sunday.

Meanwhile, across the globe, rebels stormed into Tripoli as Moammar Gadhafi’s hold on power crumbled.

Obama monitored events closely even as he engaged in a heavy schedule of summertime activities under mostly sunny skies. As crowds gathered in Tripoli’s Green Square, Obama was buying seafood at a popular restaurant.

When reporters asked him for his reaction on Libya, he said he’d have one when events became clearer.

Obama then headed to adviser Valerie Jarrett’s house for what the White House billed as dinner _ only later revealing that he held a conference call there with a battery of top advisers.

The president and his aides were also drafting a statement that the White House released about 90 minutes later. It called on Gadhafi to relinquish power, and said, “The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator.”

The developments illustrated what the White House has been saying about Obama’s vacation: He’s still focused in his job as president.

Earlier, Obama spent about an hour at the home of Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts after playing golf with some buddies. The golf foursome included Obama’s Chicago pal Eric Whitaker, UBS America executive Robert Wolf and a White House aide. Obama spent the morning at the beach with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia.

Sunday was Obama’s third full day on Martha’s Vineyard. He is scheduled to return to Washington on Saturday.

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Italy pledged on Friday to work swiftly for a constitutional amendment requiring the government to balance its budget, as Rome feverishly tried to assure domestic and foreign investors its finances are sound and calm nervous markets in Europe.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi told a hastily convened evening news conference the government will “speed up measures” in its budget law approved last month by Parliament, “with the possibility of reaching a balanced budget by 2013 instead of 2014″ as first planned.

His conservative government, now more than three years into its five-year term, will also work to amend the Constitution to include a requirement for a balanced budget, Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi, saying he conferred by phone with world leaders, announced that G-7 finance ministers will meet “within days” about the exploding financial crisis.

Later, his spokesman clarified that convening an “extraordinary meeting” of the G-7 finance ministers was still “at the reflection stage” with no decision yet taken, although Italy favored one.

Concern over the crisis was trans-Atlantic.

“This evening I’ll receive a phone call from President (Barack) Obama” because the crisis “pertains to the global financial panorama,” Berlusconi said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office also said she would be consulting with Obama later Friday.

Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who stood beside Berlusconi, said a balanced budget could be achieved by 2013 by speeding up reform of Italy’s extensive, and expensive, social welfare system, which includes national health care and generous retirement payments.

Also key to this goal, Tremonti said, would be what he promised as the “mother of all liberalization,” especially in Italy’s highly regulated world of labor.

“The principle that all will be allowed unless specifically forbidden” by labor laws will be the guiding principle of the government’s strategy, Berlusconi said.

Italy’s industrialists and mid-sized employers have complained for decades that Italy’s strict laws making firing workers almost impossible discourages them from hiring more employees in moments of need.

Further strategy also includes privatization of sectors, which Tremonti didn’t specify, and what he said would be a “speeding up” of investment to improve and modernize infrastructure, as a way to wake up Italy’s slumbering economy.

Italy’s Parliament went on vacation for a month earlier this week, but on Friday, responding to the quickly worsening economic nervousness, officials of the two chambers said key committees would keep working throughout August.

And all the lawmakers were expected to be summoned back to work as soon as the reforms pushed by Berlusconi is ready for a full vote.

Berlusconi’s coalition, despite setbacks this year in local elections, has a comfortable majority in parliament assuming his often fickle ally, the Northern League, closes ranks.

The opposition center-left has been clamoring for Berlusconi to step down, insisting he has essentially done nothing in three years to create jobs or lower the tax burden on workers.

Berlusconi’s pledges Friday night “are nothing new compared to the paucity of ideas shown by his government in recent months,” said Rosy Bindi, an opposition leader faxless payday advance.

Italy’s borrowing costs rose above Spain’s for the first time in more than a year, pushing European leaders to interrupt their vacations and look for a response to deepening fears about the health of the eurozone’s No. 3 economy.

At the start of Europe’s debt crisis 21 months ago, Italy was rarely grouped with the weaker members of the single currency zone, such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Many in the markets thought Spain, with its 20 percent unemployment rate, was vulnerable.

But the emergence of Italy as a potential victim over the past few weeks has highlighted just how vulnerable the eurozone is and how insufficient its anti-crisis measures are.

The yield on Italy’s 10-year bond stands at 6.09 percent, ahead of Spain’s equivalent of 6.04 percent _ though both are lower than the euro-era highs earlier in the week and markedly below where they were at the start of the day, they’re still not far from the levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international financial help.

Worries that Italy and Spain maybe next in line led Merkel, vacationing in the Italian Alps, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on the French Riviera, to take time from their holidays for a phone conference on the eurozone crisis. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke with Sarkozy and Berlusconi in separate phone conversations Friday.

Merkel’s office said she spoke with Sarkozy, Berlusconi and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

All agreed that “decisions made by the EU summit on July 21 should be implemented quickly,” Merkel’s office said in a statement.

At last month’s huddle, eurozone leaders agreed to a sweeping deal that will grant Greece a new bailout _ but likely make it the first euro country to default _ and radically reshape the currency union’s rescue fund, allowing it to act pre-emptively when crises build up.

But their options to what a leading EU policymaker described as “incomprehensible” movements in the markets appear limited.

Even a better than expected U.S. jobs report Friday failed to ease the pessimism that has gripped investors over the past few weeks.

It’s only been two weeks since eurozone leaders agreed to expand the powers of its euro440 billion ($623 billion) rescue fund that helped bail out Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The fund will be able to buy governments bonds and bail out banks, but the new powers will not be in place until parliaments approve the changes in September.

Analysts also warn that the fund is currently not big enough to rescue Italy, whose debt amounts to 120 percent of economic output, around double that of Spain. Only Greece has a bigger proportion to service in the eurozone.

Markets have put increasing pressure on Italy because of its chronically weak growth and a general lack of confidence in Berlusconi’s ability or willingness to push through politically difficult measures to make the economy more productive.

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Solutia Inc.’s profit increased 66 percent in the second quarter to $68 million.   

The Town & Country-based chemical manufacturer’s net sales for the quarter that ended June 30 totaled $543 million, an 8 percent increase from the second quarter of 2010.

Solutia’s earnings per share, 57 percent, increased 30 percent compared to a year ago.

Solutia’s three business segments: Advanced Interlayers, Performance Films and Technical Specialties, each saw revenue growth in the second quarter low fee pay day loans. The largest growth came in Solutia’s Advanced Interlayers segment, which had $232 million in net sales for the quarter, a 12 percent increase from a year ago.

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Dozens of Yemeni troops went missing after a battle with al-Qaida-linked militants at a sports stadium in the country’s increasingly lawless south, a military official said Saturday, describing a new setback for a weakened regime already facing an array of opponents.

Meanwhile, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been treated in a Saudi hospital since an attack on his palace a month ago, remains bedridden and has difficulty breathing and talking, Yemeni officials said, revealing new details about the extent of his injuries. His condition cast doubt on repeated claims by his aides that his return to Yemen is imminent.

Saudi Arabia has been pressing Saleh to step down within 30 days and hand power to his vice president, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. However, despite his ill health, Saleh has refused to sign the deal.

A popular uprising against Saleh erupted in February, and the revolt gained momentum after some of the president’s close aides, military commanders and Cabinet ministers joined the protesters.

Islamic militants in the south have made advances, carrying out daring attacks in an apparent attempt to exploit the power vacuum and turmoil. Saleh’s troops seem largely focused on securing his hold on power in Sanaa, the capital.

However, some have accused Saleh and his allies of encouraging attacks by the militants in order to create chaos and make Yemenis long for the relative stability of his regime.

In a statement Saturday, former military commanders who now side with the anti-government groups said Saleh’s regime is responsible for the rising power of the militants. “After seeing that all their careless tactics have failed to squash the peaceful revolt, they are now resorting to the terrorism card which they only used internationally before,” said the group, which includes a close former Saleh aide, Gen. Ali Mohsen.

Criticism also came from regime loyalists, indicating widening cracks.

Col. Mohammed al-Sawmali, whose forces are battling militants in the southern city of Zinjibar, blasted the defense ministry for not providing enough support for his unit.

“They are afraid of the militants of Ansar al-Sharia and of al-Qaida,” he said. “For a while, we have been demanding and asking for deployment and supplies to the military district in the south from the ministry of defense and from the southern command center. But nobody is listening to us.”

Another southern official, Abdel-Majed al-Salahi, a leading member in Saleh’s party, said some in the party are plotting to unleash militants in southern cities and “terrorize and blackmail the world with al-Qaida.”

Government troops and warplanes have so far targeted only two southern cities, Zinjibar and Jaar, in Abyan province.

Some 50 government soldiers have been missing in Zinjibar since Thursday, following fierce clashes with the al-Qaida-linked group Ansar al-Sharia at a major stadium there, said a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

In those clashes, 15 soldiers and eight Islamic militants were killed, the official said. The stadium was strategically located near the military base of the troops in the area.

The stadium is now in the hands of the militants, and many people living nearby have fled the area, said Ahmed Ghareb, a 31-year old city resident.

“We are living in fear,” he said, adding that he has sent his family to safety in a neighboring town no fax payday loan. “These groups are now in control of all government institutions and buildings, which they have turned into military bases for themselves,” Ghareb said. The militants have also broken into some homes in search of government supporters, he said.

In an apparent attempt to deflect the growing criticism, defense minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed met Saturday with local officials in the southern city of Aden, just 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Zinjibar.

The minister said troops will make a greater effort to battle militants.

But security and military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said Yemen’s elite anti-terrorism forces, lead by Saleh’s son, have not been deployed in the area. Saleh supporters have said the forces need to remain in the capital to protect it from attack.

The United States, in favor of a peaceful power transfer, fears that al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen could further exploit Yemen’s turmoil. Al-Qaida-linked groups have already used Yemen as a base for plotting two attempted anti-U.S. attacks.

In violence elsewhere Saturday, tribesmen attacked newly established positions of government troops near Taiz, the country’s second largest city, setting off clashes that killed four soldiers and a civilian, a security official said. Taiz is a hotbed of anti-government protests. In the fighting, troops fired shells that destroyed six homes, witnesses said.

In the central province of Marib, gunmen blew up an unused oil pipeline, the latest in a series of attacks on the same target in recent weeks, officials said Saturday. The attack occurred Thursday. Yemeni authorities stopped producing oil in May because of repeated attacks and labor unrest.

Yemen’s president, meanwhile, continues to be treated in Saudi Arabia for serious burns and other wounds he suffered in a June 3 attack on his palace in the capital of Sanaa.

Yemeni officials said Saturday that after undergoing two surgeries, Saleh remains bedridden and has trouble breathing and talking. Only relatives and his top adviser are allowed to visit him, one official said.

Earlier this week, a Yemeni TV network sent a crew to the Saudi capital to record an audio message from Saleh to the Yemeni people, but authorities prevented them from entering the hospital, a Yemeni official in Riyadh said.

“They were only allowed to film the hospital from outside,” the official said, citing an example of the Saudi restrictions on Saleh’s visitors.

Over the past week, Yemeni ruling party officials have suggested Saleh may deliver an audio message on state TV to assure his people. However, a week passed without word from Saleh.

“If he (Saleh) delivered a speech through an audio message, people would not believe it is him because they will not recognize his voice,” said another official, adding that Saleh’s voice box was harmed.

All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.

The president has not been seen in public since the attack. On June 5, hours before he flew to Saudi Arabia, he aired a brief audio message, blaming an “armed gang of outlaws” for the attack on his palace.

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