Johnson & Johnson readies hit list By Cathy Taylor and Michael McCarth

NEW YORK--Executives at Johnson & Johnson agencies were on pins and needles last week, awaiting the final word on a long-anticipated global re

When it comes down, sources said, it will delineate who the favored sons are on the New Brunswick, N.J.-based client’s long roster. “It will be similar to what P&G and Unilever have done recently,” said one source.
However, some sources speculate that a new shop might pop up on the roster to handle Pepcid anti-ulcer drug, which is currently prescription only.
Exactly which brands will move has not been finalized, but agency executives said that Young & Rubicam and Cadwell Davis Partners will probably see their role on the agency roster diminished, if not broken off entirely. Neither Y&R, CDP nor J&J would comment on the matter.
The realignment’s beneficiaries are expected to be Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising and Lintas, J&J’s primary agencies. FCB/Leber Katz Partners, which handles the Clean ‘n’ Clear line of skin products, may also lose out in the shifts, agency executives said.
The expected shakeup follows some major management changes at J&J. J&J spokesperson Jeff Leebaw said that J&J Consumer Products Inc. got a new president in April when John Nugent joined from Unil-ever. But the shifts seem to be primarily driven by CPI chairman Pete Larson, also a relative newcomer to his role, who seems unlikely to swap brands among shops to keep the whole roster happy. “Pete Larson isn’t going to do things that way anymore,” commented one source.
In the past two years, both Y&R and CDP have lost more J&J products than the’ve won. While CDP lost much of its business to McCann, Y&R, which now has a long list of clients that could conflict with J&J, has also reportedly seen its relationship weaken since former Y&R chairman Ed Ney and former J&J chairman Jim Burke left their respective companies. The pair had attended Harvard Business School together and were longtime friends.
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