Asda has dropped Saatchi & Saatchi out of the pitch for its £100m advertising account, ending its 20-year relationship with owner Publicis Groupe.

Asda, which started its advertising review in June, has selected just JWT London and VCCP to proceed to the final stage of the pitch for its account, according to Campaign magazine.

The review was kickstarted by a restructure in Asda’s marketing department following Chris McDonough’s arrival as marketing director.

Recent advertising activity from Asda, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, has included its ‘Price Lock’ campaign in March, which used the Budget as a hook for its mission to keep low prices on essential items and its heavily criticised Christmas campaign.

The ASA received 620 complaints that Asda’s festive ad, which showed an exhausted mother doing all the work to make sure Christmas was a success, was sexist.

However the advert, which ended with the line “Behind every great Christmas there’s mum, and behind every mum there’s Asda”, was cleared by the ASA.

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