Candie's To Stay In-House

Fuming Contenders Call Agency Review a ‘Travesty’
NEW YORK–Candie’s will keep its estimated $25 million account with current shop InMarketing and its in-house ad team, a decision which has infuriated the agencies that competed for the business.
Contenders knew the winner would have to work with InMarketing principal Dari Marder and her Glen Cove, N.Y., shop, but thought she was functioning as a review consultant or “brand steward.”
“If we had known we were up against the in-house agency, whose creative director sat in on every meeting we had with them, we wouldn’t have pitched the business,” said a Representative of finalist Spike/DDB in New York.