Advertising Age reported POSSIBLE withdrew its legal complaints over the allegedly cheap bid DDB offered to nab the U.S. Army account. Great—now the WPP digital shop can concentrate on enhancing its 3% Certification, which undoubtedly helped the White holding company secure a spot on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.
The U.S. Army scenario underscores modern pitch process poopiness, replete with lawsuits, lowballing, lasciviousness and lying. And technically, the actual winner doesn’t even exist, as DDB is still frantically assembling a dedicated team to service the account. Don’t be surprised if Ted Royer joins the ranks.
WPP’s Possible drops complaint over U.S. Army ad business
The filing comes five days after McCann moved to dismiss its own complaint.
By Megan Graham
WPP’s Possible has filed to dismiss its U.S. Court of Federal Claims complaint regarding the U.S. Army agency account, which was awarded to Omnicom’s DDB in November. This comes days after Interpublic Group of Cos. agency McCann moved to dismiss its own complaint, which was originally filed in November.
It appears to signal the end of a long-protracted battle for the sought-after account.
Possible, which fought for the agency account against McCann and DDB, filed its complaint in December. The agency alleged that at the price DDB promised the Army, the Omnicom shop would “likely be unable to perform the basic requirements of the contract.”
It further charged that DDB “could not have offered the levels of innovation that Possible did” at the price it promised. Although the complaint was filed in late December 2018 it was unsealed this month. DDB also filed to intervene as a party defendant on the action.
In a filing Wednesday, Possible submitted a notice of voluntary dismissal “with prejudice of all claims asserted against Defendant United States of America in Possible’s complaint.”
A spokeswoman for Possible declined to comment. A DDB representative could not be immediately reached for comment.
The lucrative Army account went up for review in 2014 but has been extended multiple times along with its contract with McCann. After the business was awarded to Omnicom Group’s DDB in November, McCann filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The GAO denied McCann’s protest bid on the grounds that its submission was incomplete because of a missing disk. McCann then took the matter to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where it remained until it moved to dismiss last week. People close to the matter told Ad Age McCann’s pulling out had to do with pricing.
News of Possible’s dismissal was first reported Wednesday evening by Adweek.
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