U.S. ANTIDRUG OFFICE WILL REBID AD CONTRACT

NEW YORK -- Questionable billing on a high-profile antidrug advertising
campaign has the government searching for an agency to replace Ogilvy &
Mather Worldwide, a unit of WPP Group PLC of London.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy intends to rebid its
advertising contract with Ogilvy next month to restore confidence in the
integrity of its public-health campaign. Recently, Rep. Bob Barr (R., Ga.)
asked President Bush to fire Ogilvy amid a criminal investigation of
questionable billing practices by the agency.

The antidrug office hasn't gone that far: Ogilvy hasn't been ruled out as a
potential winner of the rebid. "We are resoliciting the contract to open it
to fair competition," a spokeswoman for the antidrug office said.

An Ogilvy spokesman said the campaign was successful and cost-effective,
and said the agency's estimate of the overbilling comes to less than
$850,000. He cited Congressional pressure for prompting the antidrug office
to rebid the contract.

The antidrug office spends several hundred million dollars a year to
broadcast and place ads. Overbilling by Ogilvy surfaced during the past
year, and was referred to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of
New York in June for potential criminal and civil violations.

Ogilvy won the five-year contract to handle media placement of the ads
three years ago because it was the lowest bidder. But the contract includes
an option for the government to cancel the deal with Ogilvy, which receives
a guaranteed profit of $1.6 million a year.

The antidrug office recently met with nearly two dozen advertising
consultants and executives at rival agencies to discuss the terms of its
deal with Ogilvy. Among its findings was the fact that other shops might be
willing to perform the same service at a lower cost.

Rep. Barr is continuing his push to have Ogilvy fired immediately.