Chevron Pulls $10-Million JWT Account : Move Follows Ford’s Defection; Client Drain Expected to Continue

The client drain continued at troubled JWT Group as Chevron U.S.A. said Monday that it will pull its estimated $10-million Chevron brand gasoline account from the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency.

Chevron is the second major client to remove at least some of its advertising from the agency since the British marketing firm WPP Group agreed to purchase JWT two weeks ago. Last week, Ford Motor yanked much of its overseas advertising--valued at up to $140 million--away from Thompson.

Worse yet, Thompson has probably not seen the last of its client defections. “This could set the stage for even more departures,” Emma W. Hill, an analyst at the New York securities firm of Wertheim & Co., said. “If you’re a client that is dissatisfied with Thompson, certainly now is the time to leave.”

And more then a few are rattling their sabers. One of the agency’s biggest clients, Burger King, is in the midst of reviewing its $200-million account. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has threatened to pull its $30-million account. And Chicago-based Hilton Hotels is taking a second look at its $15-million account with JWT.

Amid the chaos, however, there are some rays of light. Thompson will continue to handle Ford’s $200-million U.S. Ford division account. It will also hang onto Chevron’s $3-million corporate advertising. And despite Burger King’s search for a new agency, most industry analysts also believe that Thompson will also hold on to it.

Meanwhile, Chevron denied that the WPP purchase of JWT played any role in its decision to dump Thompson as its Chevron-brand agency. On Oct. 6, the New York ad firm Young & Rubicam will take on the account.

There was an air of “deep disappointment” at Thompson’s San Francisco office Monday, said a solemn William M. Lane, general manager of Thompson’s West Coast division. That unit, which created the ad slogan “Chevron Says Yes,” has handled Chevron’s retail account for 10 years.