Being launched at retail in mid-April are a Dove Light, which contains one-third less calories and 40 percent less fat than the regular DoveBar, and a DoveBar with crunchy cookies, the cookies being crunched into the chocolate coating.

"We think we've got two winners here," says Michael Stefanos, president of Burr Ridge-based Dove International, which three years ago this August was acquired by candy giant Mars Inc.

- CPC International's Best Foods unit in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., assigned its Skippy peanut butter advertising account to BBDO New York after a competition that included incumbent Saatchi & Saatchi and Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor, both New York. BBDO thus joins Best Foods' roster of agencies, whose other shops include Saatchi, its principal agency; Backer Spielvogel Bates; and Warwick Advertising, all New York, working on such brands as Hellmann's, Mazola, Thomas' English muffins and Mueller pasta products. About $7.5 million in media spending backed Skippy in 1988. Best Foods plans to boost that outlay to $10 million-plus annually with BBDO. Skippy's market share at 22 percent of the $955 million-a-year domestic peanut butter business has been basically flat, no doubt leading to the advertising review and change in agencies. Procter & Gamble's Jif brand in the last three years has risen to a commanding 30 percent share while Beatrice's Peter Pan brand, the other top seller, has a 15 percent share.