- Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Pepsi-Cola North America is reaching beyond longtime lead creative agency BBDO for ideas on its flagship Pepsi-Cola brand, sources said.

The outreach appears to be limited to other Omnicom Group agencies on the PepsiCo roster, including TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif. (which handles Gatorade), said sources.

BBDO is also said to be working against the brief.

On Monday afternoon, a Pepsi representative declined to comment, explaining in an e-mail that "we don't comment on speculative developments regarding agency partners or anyone else."

TBWA\C\D and BBDO declined comment.

Major measured media spending on Pepsi's namesake brand exceeded $60 million last year and $40 million through the first seven months of 2008, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Those figures do not include online advertising expenditures.