Clark & Taylor has pulled out of the pitch for the ú2m Future Zone account after the computer games retailer warned of spiralling losses and called for a ú4m rescue package.

Cadbury is embarking on its biggest ever chocolate bar promotion, and using racing star Nigel Mansell for the push. Race the Ace, a £2m go-karting promotion, is being handled by sales promotion agency Osprey CSP, which won the business after a competitive pitch. The promotion will include a £500,000 TV campaign. Cadbury is offering a […]

Courage, Britain’s second biggest brewer, is set to split from long-standing roster agency BMP DDB Needham, which could mean the end of the TV advertisements starring comedian Jack Dee and the dancing penguins. The move follows a client conflict with US brewer Anheuser-Busch, which hired BMP’s parent to handle its account last November (MW November […]

Poster specialist More O’Ferrall is gearing up for a fight with the Joint Industry Council on Poster Audience Research (JICPAR) over the introduction of Oscar II – the industry’s new research and planning system. MOF is understood to want the geodemographic part of the system scrapped because it does not believe that models of local […]

Golden Wonder has been ordered to remove illegal flyposters for its Bandido tortilla crisp brand. The snack food giant launched a flyposting campaign through Tequila UK this year. It was intended to give its Bandidos snacks an underground, streetwise image. But Golden Wonder has now been ordered to remove some posters because they are being […]

Leagas Shafron Davis Ayer rolls out its first `original’ work for the Volkswagen-owned Seat this weekend. The agency secured the ú5m account last year after an extended pitch for the total pan-European business was won by Ayer Europe. The new campaign is designed to highlight Seat’s value-for-money image via an interplay between two characters: one, […]

Young & Rubicam is understood to have won the ú3.5m European Night Services business to promote the Channel Tunnel’s sleeper service.

Holsten Distributors is axing its 12-year sponsorship of Tottenham Hotspurs football club at the end of the season, and could pull out of sponsorship altogether. The last deal the two companies signed nearly three years ago was worth ú1.9m over three years. Tottenham is expected to announce a replacement sponsor within the next few weeks. […]

At one time, you were either young, middle-aged, old or dead. Now, the world is full of Generation X and Third Agers, all desperate to be targeted.

* Frank Mars launched chocolate and nougat bar, Milky Way in the US in 1923. He gave his son Forrest Snr $50,000 and the foreign rights to market the brand, which was launched in the UK and renamed the Mars bar. It was produced at a factory in Slough from August 1932. A different product, […]

Virginia Matthews’ jousting with the customer service industry (MW, February 17) elicited a few sympathetic groans here at The Cade Partnership. As an agency with a good deal of experience helping clients handle customer complaints, we are only too familiar with the “how may I help you?” brigade. Telephone helplines are a marvellous opportunity to […]

In the past, commissioning market research could be very much like playing Russian roulette, in terms of the quality and honesty of the end results, but advances in computer-aided techniques mean that clients can expect a faster, more accurate

Retail giant Kingfisher is considering shutting down nearly a quarter of its Comet stores in a fresh attempt to remove excess capacity from the overcrowded electrical retail market. Kingfisher, which owns Woolworths, Superdrug and B&Q, as well as Comet, has told City analysts that a review of the chain’s operations could include the closure of […]

Arsenal striker Ian Wright and upmarket publisher the Magazine Collection have formed a joint venture to publish a football and lifestyle magazine. The Player, to be launched in April, will be a glossy upmarket bi-monthly aimed at men aged 20 to 44 and is the latest entrant to the burgeoning men’s magazine market. Dennis Publishing’s […]

While many sympathise with those protesting against live animal exports, it should be noted that meat consumption is actually on the increase. By George Pitcher