Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore., plans to lay off as many as 30 employees, close to 13percentt of its staff of 235, after losing the creative assignments for two large brands of the Coca-Cola Company, Diet Coke and Powerade, with combined billings estimated at $110 million.
Deutsch also resigned two creative assignments in March, for the Almay and Mitchum product lines sold by Revlon, after losing the creative account for the Revlon brand.
McCann Erickson Worldwide, which had created ads for chemicals and lubricants for ExxonMobil and predecessor companies since 1912, loses that assignment, and Euro RSCG Worldwide, New York, part of the Havas Worldwide unit of Havas, loses the assignment to create corporate-image ads.
After 28 years, Saatchi & Saatchi lost the Tylenol assignment last week when the agency was eliminated from a creative review that began in September.
Almay had been handled by Deutsch in New York, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, from 2001 until March, when it resigned the assignment after losing its Revlon-brand account to the Kaplan Thaler Group in New York, part of the Publicis Groupe.
It was no surprise that Lowe Lintas would lose the Burger King assignment because the agency was eliminated from the review in November, two months after it began.
The personnel moves are part of changes as Modernista prepares for life after losing its Cadillac and Hummer creative assignments from the General Motors Corporation.
The agency also regained the Coca-Cola Classic assignment, a huge triumph after losing that account years ago.
Though Lowe lost the Verizon Wireless creative assignment, Interpublic was able to retain Verizon Wireless on its client roster.
Endearingly, after losing yesterday's final against the outstanding Cuban multi-champion Mario Kindelán, Khan spoke of getting back to Bolton technical college where he had "fallen well behind with my assignments".
