Yet another Chicago-based advertiser is taking its ad businessout of town. Dove Bar International, the ice cream confectionscompany based in west suburban Burr Ridge, has assigned its $10million account to Grey Advertising, New York.
Dove Bar, now a unit of the global Mars Inc. candy company,moves the chocolate-covered ice cream bar that was the originalproduct for the company to Grey, as well as Rondos, a bite-sizedchocolate-covered ice cream bon-bon.
Rondos, which gets close to half of the ad budget, was a clientof Tatham-Laird & Kudner, Chicago. Sources close to the competitionfor this account say that Forever Yours ice cream sundaes, which hada $2.3 million ad budget last year according to published reports,will be dropped from the company's product line. TLK also handledForever Yours.
Dove Bar has not really had an ad agency since late last yearwhen Mars suddenly fired Leo Burnett Co. because of what it called acompetitive conflict with another Burnett client, H.J. Heinz Co.Burnett also handled many Mars candy products.
Mars, a very secretive privately held company, has been strivingsince that time to consolidate its advertising business with a fewagencies around the world that can work in all of the productcategories in which it markets products.
Grey, which up until now did not have any U.S. advertisingbusiness from Mars, is a major agency for the McLean, Va.-basedcompany in Europe. In addition to working on several candy brandsfrom its offices in most European capitals, Grey also handles MarsInc. pet foods and Uncle Ben's rice in Europe.
The other two primary agencies for Mars are D'Arcy Masius Benton& Bowles and Backer Spielvogel Bates. Both of these shops picked upmajor brands earlier this year when the business from Burnett wasreassigned.
At Dove Bar, a new top marketing man, Kevin Martin, has beeninstalled by Mars management, and ad agency executives involved inthe review say that it is Martin, rather than President MichaelStefano, who is making the calls.
Consumers probably remember best the Dove Bar advertising fromChicago agency Zechman & Associates that launched the popularconfection into mass-market distribution. The Zechman ads told thestory of the Stefano family's local ice cream shop, where the firstcalorific bars were hand-dipped.
Still to be decided is which ad agency will handle new productsplanned to cross Mars confections with ice cream desserts. To date,Mars has introduced a Three Musketeers ice cream confection thatcurrently is handled by Backer Spielvogel Bates.
At Tatham-Laird & Kudner, President and Chief Operating OfficerWilliam Youngclaus said Monday that his agency had not yet beeninformed by Dove that it no longer had the account.
Tatham has had a difficult year of account losses withoutcounterbalancing gains, and its staff already is pared to the bone.Many of the losses were, like this one, the result of corporatemaneuverings on the part of the client, rather than reflecting poorlyon the agency's work. The effect, however, is that several majorpackage goods companies, on which TLK had been counting for futuregrowth, no longer are on its client list.
Other local companies moving their ad business out of the cityin the past year include Hyatt Hotels, Quaker Oats (hot cereals),Motorola and NutraSweet's Equal. PFIZER BUYING ORAL LABS
Oral Research Laboratories, the marketer of Plax plaque-removingdental rinse, will be acquired by Pfizer Inc.
Pfizer acquired 20 percent interest in the company last year,and now will pay another $200 million to acquire the remaining share.
Edmund T. Pratt Jr., Pfizer chairman and chief executiveofficer, said Plax will become his company's biggest consumer brandand "fits well with our strategy to expand our consumer health carebusiness."
Plax currently is advertised by Ally & Gargano, New York.
Nancy Millman writes Monday through Friday.
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