CVS Selects Bates, Ends Long Run With Hub’s Ingalls

The 10-year relationship between CVS and Ingalls Advertising ended when the client recently moved its creative assignment to Bates USA in New York. CVS had already moved media duties to TBS Media Management in New York.
Observers questioned whether Bates and TBS were the shops CVS wanted. The client hoped to award its creative duties to Young & Rubicam in New York, but that agency was busy absorbing the Citibank account, sources said. Y&R was cut from contention, leaving only Publicis/Bloom in New York and Bates as finalists, sources said.
CVS talked initially with DeWitt Media in New York before that shop won Rite Aid’s ad account and withdrew from the review. “We’re very happy [with TBS],” said CVS official Fred McGrail. –David Gianatasio