NEWS: HOTLINE

J. Walter Thompson has pulled out of the pounds 6 million pitch for Lego

and Legoland because of pressure from its Madame Tussauds client, part

of the Tussauds Group, which includes Alton Towers.

Delaney Fletcher Bozell has replaced

JWT......................................

Simons Palmer Clemmow Johnson has beaten Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury to

win the UK leg of the pounds 6 million Fuji pitch. The agency will pitch

in Dusseldorf on 3 September against Dentsu, Campus and one agency each

from France and Germany...............

The Morgan Partnership in Edinburgh has appointed Kit Marr as

creative director. Marr, who has worked at Collett Dickenson Pearce,

Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and BMP DDB, will be in direct competition with

his brother, Colin, who is the head of another Scottish agency, Marr

Associates.............................................

BSkyB has confirmed that it is in talks with BT about a joint venture

aimed at strengthening both companies in the face of cable’s telephony

and TV offerings. The deal would let BT enter the digital TV arena.

Interactive TV opportunities are also being studied......

Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance, which merged earlier this year, are

actively comparing their individual media companies with a view to a

pounds 30 million centralised pitch. The incumbents, the Media Factor

and Leagas Shafron Davis, are expected to line up against a number of

other media companies in the early autumn...................

Agency appraisal systems and staff secondments to client companies will

be the focus of the second joint conference held by the Institute of

Practitioners in Advertising and the Incorporated Society of British

Advertisers on 7 November. Both the IPA and ISBA will canvass members

before the event - ‘Working together for more effective advertising’

will be published.........................

M&C Saatchi has boosted its planning power on British Airways with two

appointments. Richard Storey joins from BMP DDB, where he was a board

account planner on new business, S. C. Johnson and Terry’s, while Katie

Lancaster leaves Ogilvy and Mather, where she worked primarily on

Ford.................................................

Frizzell, the financial services company, has denied reports of a review

of its pounds 4 million full-service account currently with BMP DDB. A

number of creative and media agencies are understood to have been

approached but Mark Burn, the brand manager, said: ‘There are no plans

for a review at this stage’..........................

CIA Group is said to be in the process of acquiring a company to

complete its positioning as a rounded communications operation. The CIA

Group already includes media buying companies, a new-media division and

a specialist direct marketing division. Speculation is mounting that the

new acquisition could be in the field of programme production or

sponsorship............................................

A Sunday Mirror trade press ad is calling on advertisers to pull ads

from its rival, the News of the World, and put them in the Sunday Mirror

in light of the Mandy Allwood baby story. The Sunday Mirror calls it an

outrage that the News of the World is paying a fortune to Allwood. Ellis

Watson, the News Group marketing director, said of the ad: ‘It smacks of

hypocrisy’.............................................

BBJ Media Services has picked up the pounds 1.2 million media account

for Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice following a competitive pitch against

20/20 Media and the incumbent, TMS. BBJ already handles the centralised

media buying account for RHM Foods, which handles UK marketing for the

Ocean Spray brand..........................

The football-themed CarlingNet Website has been given a fresh look by

Carat Interactive. Changes to CarlingNet, which has claimed 30 million

hits since its November 1995 launch, include an updated home page, the

CarlingNet Awards, a sackings and signings news page and Java headlines

on key pages.......................................

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against the

Times brought by the rival publisher, the Telegraph group. The ASA said

a claim by the Times in a recent TV ad that it offered the biggest sport

section was

untrue........................................................

This article was first published on Campaign