Gallo Says Frank and Ed Will Keep Jobs

Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes need shed no tears over spilt wine.

The popular acting duo, who helped make a household word out of Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler, will be retained by E & J Gallo Winery even though the ad agency that created them has dropped Gallo as a client.

“We have no plans to make any changes,” Daniel J. Solomon, a spokesman for Modesto-based Gallo, said Monday. “We’ll continue with Bartles and Jaymes.” Solomon said that the San Francisco ad agency, Hal Riney & Partners, quit after Gallo told the firm it planned to assign two minor brands to another agency.

Executives from Riney, who last week announced they had quit working for Gallo, had no comment Monday.

Gallo has already begun a search but said it will probably be months before it names a new agency for the $78-million account. Solomon said that California ad firms will not get priority consideration. “Geography,” he said, “is of secondary importance to creativity.”