CHICAGO After a turbulent four-year relationship, Miller Brewing Co. has dropped J. Walter Thompson from its agency roster, sources said. JWT's Chicago office has handled the Milwaukee brewer's Miller Genuine Draft and Foster's Lager brands. Spending on those brands totaled $25 million and $10 million, respectively, in 2002, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. Recently, the agency's Chicago and New York offices had shared work on MGD.

Creative for MGD will likely be consolidated with Ogilvy & Mather, New York and Chicago, sources said. The account, which JWT initially won in 1999 without a review, was split between the two WPP Group shops last year. (Ogilvy also works on Miller Lite.)

JWT has had a strained relationship with Miller owing to sexual overtones in the shop's "Never miss a genuine opportunity" campaign for MGD. Launched in 2000, that work was deemed inappropriate by Miller distributors and the national broadcast networks.

The recent "Pure MGD" campaign still is "missing the mark" on the brand, sources said. In March, during Miller's annual wholesalers convention, JWT's work was not shown for the first time since it picked up the account.

Foster's is currently in review; JWT is no longer defending. Independents M&C Saatchi, New York and Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore., remain in contention.

The decision to drop JWT comes at the same time as Miller's brand-portfolio drill, in which Miller is asking both roster and non-roster shops to pitch ideas that define what Miller means across all of its brands.

Media duties for Miller are handled in-house.

A Miller representative declined to comment and JWT officials could not be immediately reached.

18 July, 2003