The National Front has attacked an Abbott Mead Vickers poster for K
Shoes. The ad, headlined ’Times are changing and so are K Shoes’,
features a group of children of mixed races. The National Front has
accused the poster of being political in intent, not commercial, and
threatened to picket K Shoes shops and stockists if the poster continues
to be displayed (2 August, 1985).
Alfredo Marcantonio has been made a vice-chairman of Abbott Mead Vickers
BBDO and creative vice-president of BBDO in Milan. A senior writer and
board director formerly with BBDO, Marcantonio almost quit at the time
of the 1991 merger between the two. David Abbott said: ’Frankly, we
wouldn’t be number two in the league table without him.’ (20 October,
1995).
Julie Waters is to star as Yvonne, a Delia Smith-type chef, in an Abbott
Mead Vickers BBDO campaign for Bisto gravy. Yvonne is a good cook but a
dreadful presenter. AMV won the then pounds 3.5 million billing RHM
Foods brand in June 1990 and, as predicted, killed off the Bisto kids
(27 September, 1996).
The PG Tips chimps have been drafted into an ad to boost UK sales of the
Danish Bodum coffeemaker. In the 30-second commercial, a chimp is seen
making real coffee using a Bodum cafetiere. The ad, which closes with
the chimp working the plunger with his foot, is designed to show how
easy real coffee is with a Bodum (23 October, 1992).
John Field, the head of print production at Abbott Mead Vickers, has
been made a member of the board. Field joined the agency in 1978. He had
previously worked with David Abbott at Doyle Dane Bernbach and French
Gold Abbott (23 October, 1981).
Weetabix has appointed Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO to protect its Alpen and
Ready-Brek cereals against the threat of own-label products. AMV won the
pounds 5 million pitch ahead of BSB Dorland and Lowe Howard-Spink
because of its ’powerful idea’, according to Les Comley, sales director
of Weetabix (20 March, 1992).
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has won the pounds 25 million pan-European
Wella account - and will have to resign its pounds 12 million
Alberto-Culver business in order to do so. It will be the second time
AMV has resigned Alberto. The first was in 1983 after a nine-month
relationship when AMV was the third agency to sack the client in 16
months, leading to speculation that Alberto was the ’world’s worst
client’. AMV took on the business again earlier this year when it merged
with BBDO (8 March, 1991).
Kiss FM is launching the first audience-participation cinema commercial.
The 60-second film, by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO’s Tom Carty and Walter
Campbell, starts with people acting out various scenarios in silence. A
voiceover then encourages the audience to shout to the projectionist if
they want the sound turned up. The commercial is rewound and played
complete with soundtrack (4 October, 1991).
Smiths, the snack food company, has moved its pounds 400,000 crisps and
Square crisps business to Abbott Mead Vickers after four years at
Dorlands. The account is expected to bill around pounds 2 million (3
April, 1981).
Graham Brown, head of account management, was this week promoted to
vice-chairman of Abbott Mead Vickers. Brown has been with the agency
since 1978 and worked on accounts such as Volvo and Cow & Gate. In 1997
he was board account director on Yellow Pages, the Prudential and
Weetabix (16 February, 1990).
Abbott Mead Vickers SMS this week introduces a new character into its
campaign for Labatt’s lager. He is Malcolm the Mountie, who always gets
his can. Malcolm became a durable character during his eight-year career
for Labatt’s, and went on to incur the wrath of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police. In one ad, which parodied the famous Monty Python
lumberjack sketch, Malcolm gets snowed in and then rescues two
attractive mounties who ’put on women’s clothing and hang around in
bars’ (4 February, 1988).
