- Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Young & Rubicam here has landed creative duties on Office Depot's ad account, a client representative confirmed today.

Major media spending on the brand approached $120 million last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Office Depot's previous lead agency was Publicis Groupe's The Kaplan Thaler Group in New York.

The shift came after a review in which the New York office of Ogilvy & Mather was the other finalist, sources said.

Kaplan Thaler had handled the business since late 2005.

In addition to traditional creative duties, WPP Group's Y&R will handle digital duties for the Delray Beach, Fla.-based retailer. Kaplan Thaler had handled both as well, the Office Depot rep said. Y&R had no immediate comment.

Media planning and buying duties were not in play and remain at Omnicom Group's Prometheus in New York.

Y&R New York also is a finalist in Wachovia Corp.'s $145 million creative and media review, along with sister shop Ogilvy in New York, Omnicom's Merkley + Partners in New York and Interpublic Group's Lowe in New York. Both Y&R and Ogilvy are teaming with fellow WPP shop Maxus here for media duties; Lowe's media partner is Universal McCann in New York and Merkley's is OMD in New York. Final presentations will take place next week at the bank's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Each agency will get about three hours to present, said sources.