Saatchi Saatchi

The British firm Saatchi & Saatchi Co. yesterday announced plans to acquire Ted Bates Worldwide Inc. for $450 million in a deal that would create the world's largest advertising agency with combined billings of $7.5 billion. The move is the latest in a heated race among mega-agencies seeking to increase their international capabilities by gobbling up other mega-agencies. It gives Saatchi & Saatchi/Ted Bates one leg up on BBDO International, Doyle Dane Bernbach Group Inc. and Needham Harper Worldwide Inc., which announced plans two weeks ago to merge their three agencies into what would have been the world's biggest agency group.

At an ordinary Burger King restaurant here last week was extraordinary fanfare: As a Dixieland band played and a juggler threw flaming batons, the president of Burger King, Charles Olcott, toasted the chain's advertising agency and presented a crystal sculpture of a flame, engraved with the names of both companies. Champagne bottles were popped and a contract for the new year sealed with a bite from a hamburger. But there was something missing from this festive scene. Instead of Olcott extending the royal treatment to Burger King's advertising agency of 11 years - the prominent J. Walter Thompson Co. - he was congratulating a new partner, N. W. Ayer Inc. Amid all the hoopla for Ayer - and regrets for Thompson - was a sobering message to others on Madison Avenue: Be careful, it could happen to you, too. The shifting of the $200 million Burger King account from Thompson to Ayer was the biggest account switch in the history of Madison Avenue.

Barton A. Cummings, 80, chairman emeritus of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide and former CEO of Compton Advertising, died Sunday at his Princeton home. Associates described him as a consummate salesman who had a phenomenal impact on the industry during a career that spanned six decades. Just last week, Mr. Cummings was notified that the American Advertising Federation had established the Barton A. Cummings American Advertising Federation Gold Medal, which would be awarded annually to an individual who has made a unique contribution to advertising through the AAF. Mr. Cummings was to be the first recipient.

Britain's WPP Group has proposed a $724.5 million buyout of Ogilvy Group Inc. that would create an advertising holding company vying with Britain's Saatchi & Saatchi as the world's largest, Ogilvy announced Sunday. Shares in Ogilvy Group yesterday soared more than $17, to $49.125, surpassing WPP's proposed bid of $45 a share. Ogilvy is the parent of the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. If the deal goes through, it would be the biggest takeover of an advertising firm, breaking the record set by WPP's $566 million purchase of JWT Group Inc., parent of J. Walter Thompson Co., two years ago. WPP Group, headed by British advertising tycoon Martin Sorrell, said its bid was friendly, but Ogilvy responded with strong language.

Unisys Corp. has turned to an outside executive with a record of building consulting and service businesses to head its worldwide professional-services group. Both the position and the group are new at the Blue Bell computer company, reflecting its commitment to expanding the service aspects of its various computer and information-management businesses, a spokesman said. Victor E. Millar, 57, joined Unisys yesterday, carrying the titles of senior vice president of Unisys and president of the Professional Services Group.

Former White House aide Michael K. Deaver, who now runs a lucrative lobbying firm, receives a copy of President Reagan's confidential apppointments schedule every day, a White House spokesman confirmed yesterday. Deputy press secretary Peter Roussel said that Deaver, who is a close confidant of Reagan and his wife, Nancy, receives the same presidential schedule that is distributed to the White House staff. The schedule contains on- and off-the-record listings. "Much of it is the same as is distributed to the press," Roussel said.

RJR Nabisco Inc. abruptly fired one of its longtime advertising agencies yesterday, apparently because the tobacco and foods giant was offended by an anti-smoking ad that the agency recently made for Northwest Airlines. The agency, Saatchi & Saatchi DFS Inc., is the successor to agencies that have been making ads for Nabisco cookies for 12 years and for Life Savers candy for 18 years. Industry sources estimate the agency was handling about $100 million in ad billings for RJR Nabisco, making it a major account by ad industry standards.

Just as it predicted it would, Philadelphia's advertising community is about to cash in on the fallout from the recent spate of mergers involving some of the nation's largest advertising agencies. The Tri-state Honda Dealers Advertising Association, now represented by Needham Harper Worldwide Inc., one of the agencies involved in the mergers, is quitting Madison Avenue for Philadelphia. The Honda association, which represents 18 dealers in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, has invited two dozen Philadelphia advertising agencies to bid for its $1.5 million advertising account.

Interest rates on three- and six-month Treasury bills fell in yesterday's auction. The Treasury Department sold $6.6 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 5.64 percent, down from 5.70 percent last week. Another $6.6 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 5.93 percent, down from 5.95 percent last week and the fifth consecutive week of declines. The rates were the lowest since three-month bills sold for 5.59 percent on June 8 and six-month bills sold for 5.74 percent on May 11. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors - 5.82 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,857.

ABC has come up with its own way to count television viewers next season for purposes of compensating advertisers for smaller-than-promised audiences. In the latest network reaction to an unexplained drop in A.C. Nielsen Co. ratings this year, ABC announced Thursday that it will factor previous years' ratings into its formula for so-called make-goods. The networks sell commercial time on the basis of expected audiences, and give advertisers free air time to "make good" for lower ratings.