Rowland Communications has picked up the Sunny Delight account which went out to pitch following a conflict of interest with incumbent Ketchum Life (PR Week, 27 October).
The appointment comes after a competitive pitch against Edelman PR Worldwide and Manning, Selvage and Lee. However, the agency is part of Saatchi and Saatchi, which works on Sunny Delight for Procter and Gamble.
Rowland Communications was formed out of the Rowland Company, which was bought by Edelman PR Worldwide in the summer. It is run by Richard Stacy, planning director and Richard Moss, client services director. The agency is not known for its consumer work, although it handles Lycra for Dupont.
It will now be looking after a brand which is immensely popular with its target market of children and young teens.
However, health watchdogs are not fond of the product, which, it is claimed, is too high in sugar and low in nutritional value. Sunny Delight also reportedly turned one youngster yellow, after she drank 1.5 litres of the 'real fruit beverage' a day.
P&G launched Light Sunny Delight last month, a lower-sugar version of the drink.
Ketchum Life handled Sunny Delight since its launch in April 1998. But it gave up the work to take on a UK consumer PR brief from Britvic, which includes Tango and Pepsi.
