Carnation Pulls Ad Account From Ogilvy

Carnation, one of the West Coast’s largest packaged-goods companies, has decided to repackage its advertising.

The company said Friday that it will consolidate much of its advertising with several advertising agencies owned by the giant New York holding company, Interpublic Group. In Los Angeles, an account valued at $12 million to $15 million will go from Ogilvy & Mather to McCann-Erickson/Los Angeles.

Dailey & Associates, the Los Angeles agency that also creates ads for several Carnation products, will not be affected by the changes--at least for the time being. But advertising executives speculated Friday that this may be just the beginning to a major overhaul of Carnation’s advertising nationwide.

“We want to realign our advertising strategy to focus on fewer agencies,” said Richard Curd, a Carnation spokesman. The company is following the lead of Nestle, which owns Carnation Co. “This in no way reflects dissatisfaction with Ogilvy’s past performance,” Curd said.

Carnation is one of the few major packaged-goods companies headquartered on the West Cost. Because packaged-goods makers are often such large and visible advertisers, their accounts are coveted.

Perhaps the most familiar ads that Ogilvy has created for Carnation are for its Contadina Fresh Pasta and Fresh Sauces. Those commercials, which show the pasta’s expiration date stamped on the package, say: Our days are numbered, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s darned unfortunate to do a great job for a client and then have the larger corporate goals of the client get in the way,” said Gerald McGee, general manager of Ogilvy’s Los Angeles office, regarding the loss of the account it handled for about three years. “They want to consolidate, and we got stung by it.”

McGee, whose office recently won the coveted Paramount Pictures advertising business, said there will not be any layoffs resulting from the loss of the Carnation business.

Meanwhile, the big winner is McCann-Erickson/Los Angeles, which will not only create ads for the pasta lines, but also for Grand Gourmet dog food, and for two lines of Carnation infant formula, Good Start and Good Nature.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Jim Surmanek, senior vice president at McCann. He said the agency will hire more staff once the extent of the new business is clearer.