£3.5m Typhoo up for pitch – again

Premier Foods International is reviewing its &£3.5m Typhoo Tea advertising business for the third time in two years.

Clemmow Hornby Inge, Delaney Lund Knox Warren (DLKW) and incumbent Fallon are all to pitch for the business, with a decision expected at the beginning of January.

Earlier this year Premier trimmed its roster to include only DLKW and Fallon, which was

handed the flagship tea account (MW May 24). Last week Clemmow Hornby Inge won a place on the roster for the &£3m Loyd Grossman range of sauces.

Typhoo appointed Mother in January 2000, but the agency’s ad campaign – which depicted Indian workers on a tea plantation – came under fire for pandering to racist stereotypes. The agency defended the ads, saying that it had consulted the Indian community and comedienne and author Meera Syal. However the agency declined to repitch when the account came up for review.

In addition to Typhoo, Fallon works on London Fruit & Herb, HP Beans and Smash for Premier Foods while DLKW handles the Cadbury’s hot chocolate drinks, Chivers and Hartley’s preserves accounts. Media for all the Premier Foods brands is handled by Zenith Media.

Several tea brands are undergoing changes in a bid to move with the times. Tetley is considering ditching its Tea Folk and Unilever Bestfoods is considering axing chimpanzees – a feature since 1956 – from PG Tips ads (MW December 6).