DDB Needham offices trade accounts By Alison Fahe

NEW YORK--DDB Needham Worldwide's New York and Chicago offices have swapped portions of two major accounts Clairol and Frito-Lay--in a move which stabilizes shaky

Sources said the creative assignment for Clairol’s Nice’n Easy has moved from New York to Chicago and creative for Frito-Lay’s Tostitos and Rold Gold pretzels, formerly done in Chicago, will be handled primarily in New York. Frito would only confirm that the business will be shared by the two offices.
The move is particularly critical to the Clairol account. It is believed that Clairol was unhappy with recent creative generated by the New York office and that it had been contemplating leaving DDB. “They wanted a strong female creative head,” said one DDB/N.Y. source. The Clairol account is now being run by DDB Chicago president Susan Gillette.
Earlier this year, DDB moved its troubled GTE business from New York to a new Dallas group called Focus GTE, a shift which seems to have saved most of that account. Also, creative responsibility for Volkswagen moved from Detroit to New York. In all, DDB has shuffled responsibility for some $200 million worth of business between various offices in recent months.
“We have no geographic boundaries, only client service boundaries,” said DDB/N.Y. president Andy Berlin, noting that the Volkswagen account is being handled by “Team VW,” which includes people from different DDB offices.
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