- Gregory Solman and Andrew McMains

LOS ANGELES Independent Droga5, MDC Partners' Cliff Freeman and Partners and Interpublic Group's Deutsch/LA are expected to present ideas to Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages on a "Dr Pepper-related" creative project in the next few weeks, per sources.

Droga5 and Cliff Freeman are pitching from their New York offices; Deutsch is competing from its office in Marina del Rey, Calif.

WPP Group's Young & Rubicam, lead shop on Dr Pepper, has already put forth work from three different offices: New York, Chicago and San Francisco, where the account is based, according to sources.

The agencies either declined comment or could not be reached.

A client representative yesterday confirmed that the company had reached beyond Y&R to get ideas for a "Dr Pepper-related" creative project.

Greg Artkop, representing the Plano, Texas-based client, said that the Dr Pepper brand is not up for review and stressed that Y&R in San Francisco remains the company's lead creative resource.

Two years ago, Y&R's Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper business shifted from its New York office to San Francisco, which had already been working on Diet Dr Pepper and sister brand 7Up. The shift resulted in all of Y&R's Cadbury Scheppes business being consolidated in San Francisco.

Ad spending on the core Dr Pepper brand -- excluding the diet version and Fountain Classics -- was nearly $35 million through November 2007, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Spending for full-year 2006 was $45 million.

This story updates and replaces an item posted yesterday with the names of the shops pitching ideas to Dr Pepper.