ANTIDRUG CAMPAIGN KEEPS OGILVY & MATHER

In a surprise decision, the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy has kept the New York office of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, part of
the WPP Group, as its agency for media services, research and strategy.
Ogilvy has handled the assignments, with billings estimated at $152
million, since December 1998.

The decision, made Wednesday after an 11-month review, was unexpected
because the review was called after the government accused Ogilvy of
overbilling and leveled civil and criminal charges against the agency. In
February, Ogilvy agreed to a $1.8 million settlement of the civil charges.
The criminal investigation, centered on whether Ogilvy employees altered
time sheets, is continuing. "We're delighted to continue to work with" the
antidrug office, Ogilvy executives said in a statement. Ogilvy had
maintained that the problems were inadvertent errors in timekeeping,
stemming from inexperience in handling government contracts. Ogilvy has
since revamped its accounting system to comply with government standards.

The review had been narrowed to Ogilvy and these others, all in New York:
the team of Foote, Cone & Belding and Initiative Media, both owned by the
Interpublic Group of Companies; two units of the McCann-Erickson World
Group division of Interpublic, McCann-Erickson Worldwide Advertising and
Universal McCann; the team of Bates Worldwide, part of the Cordiant
Communications Group, and Zenith Media, part of the Zenith Optimedia Group,
jointly owned by Cordiant and the Publicis Groupe; and Zenith teamed up
with a Publicis sibling, Saatchi & Saatchi.

The contract has the same terms as the current one, for one year with four
one-year renewal options. The creative part of the account is produced
mostly by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

The decision to keep Ogilvy may generate complaints in Congress because in
hearings last month, two representatives criticized the agency. An article
in Advertising Age quoted one, Representative Mark Souder, Republican of
Indiana, as saying, "Preferably when somebody has been found guilty of
cheating, they don't get the new contract."