S.C. Johnson Drops Big Lump of Coal in Draftfcb’s Stocking

By Kiran Aditham 

So much for holiday spirit. Lewis Lazare over at the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Wisconsin-based home care products giant S.C. Johnson decided earlier week to basically put every ad account from its global portfolio of brands into review, which could be disastrous for Draftfcb Chicago. The agency just experienced layoffs in April, though at the time, a source familiar with the matter told us that it’s the “largest and most successful” agency in the Draft global network.

Lazare says that Draftfcb’s “realignment” in August, which resulted in the elimination of Mark Modesto, could be somewhat  to blame for S.C. Johnson’s latest move as Modesto was in charge of said company’s North American business. The eventual completion of the review, which S.C. Johnson has no set timetable for, could spell the end of a nearly 60-year relationship with Draftfcb Chicago, which handled advertising for Pledge, Windex and Raid among other brands in the S.C. portfolio. Of course, while Draft is the key player here in the purported $600 million account of the “Family Company,” this move also affects agencies working with SCJ on a smaller scale including R/GA, Ogilvy and Mullen.

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