Coca-Cola Executives Think Things Go Better With CAA

Creative Artists Agency appears to be within a polar bear’s whisker of inheriting the entire TV advertising campaign for Coca-Cola.

Less than six months after the Beverly Hills talent firm created two dozen television ads for Coca-Cola, the Atlanta-based soft drink maker said late Thursday it gave Creative Artists the go-ahead to produce 30 more spots. Coke executives declined to state whether the company’s longtime New York agency, McCann-Erickson, would continue to create ads and purchase media time.

“McCann will be presenting advertising work, and it will be considered,” said Linda Peek, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman. Executives at McCann were unavailable late Thursday.

The move by Coca-Cola seems to further blur the lines between talent firms and ad agencies, and indicates that Coke has clearly decided to put most--if not all--of its advertising efforts into the hands of a talent agency that didn’t even produce its first ad until this year.

“Rewriting the rules when looking for creative resources has proven to be very good for our business,” said M. Douglas Ivester, executive vice president of Coca-Cola, in a statement Thursday.

The ads, several of which will feature Coke’s now-familiar animated polar bears, are expected to begin airing around Thanksgiving and continue throughout 1994. Although consumers surveyed by one research firm said they weren’t dazzled with Creative Artists’ first set of “Always Coke” ads, there is little doubt that Coca-Cola executives are.

Creative Artists has continued to expand its advertising operations, last week hiring Steve Carbone, executive vice president at rival International Creative Management, to help focus the agency’s ad efforts.

“A talent agency has got to keep expanding the marketplace for its clients,” said a Creative Artists spokeswoman, who noted that her clients wrote music for and directed some Coke ads. “But we are not an advertising agency.”