Well, this might be a first. While it usually takes plenty of teeth-pulling on our part to extract the tiniest bit of truth when it comes to the status of an agency-client relationship, Santa Monica, CA-based Secret Weapon Marketing is making our job much easier this morning by announcing that it’s been terminated by its client CLEAR via press release.
Call it a preemptive strike if you will, but Secret Weapon is spinning it as if it’s an “unofficial, and possibly official, advertising record.” In a statement, the agency’s founder/CD Dick Sittig, the man behind the Energizer Bunny who was also the voice and creator of the long-running Jack in the Box campaign, says, “I’m pretty sure 13 years, 7 days is a record time for an agency to go without being terminated by any client.”
According to the announce, wireless internet provider CLEAR gave Secret Weapon notice that it was transitioning its account to another agency effective June 30, thus ending the parties’ two-year relationship. Ironically, the agency was just awarded an EFFIE last week for the most effective advertising in the Internet Products and Services Category for CLEAR, so that can be considered both validation and an EFF-U (sorry).
Obviously, Secret Weapon doesn’t seem too bothered, though its “advertising record” was likely helped by the fact that the agency limits itself to no more than three clients at a time. The remaining two are, yes, Jack in the Box and also SoCal Honda Dealers, so the third is yours for the taking, brands.
More: “Video: An Ad Man’s Lament”