Seen by insiders as the chatelaine of the $50-$60 million global Heineken business, worldwide account director Michael Silver is said to be exploring job prospects with agencies other than his current employer, Lowe Lintas & Partners.
The New York office of D'Arcy is said to rank high among the shops with whom he has conducted promising career conversations – although this was not confirmed by Silver, who declined to return several enquiring calls made Friday by AdWeek.
The uncommunicative adman is said to be a close chum of Heineken marketing director Steve Davis, who was not similarly incommunicado and described talk of the business moving out of Lowe Lintas along with Silver as no more than “rumor”. Of the latter he said admiringly: “You don't see a lot of account people like Michael Silver that have the passion like [he] does. He has been a great asset to us.”
Claiming that he talks frequently with other agencies, Davis stressed that Lowe Lintas was Heineken's agency of record, although “I must have had ten conversations with agencies in [the last] two months”. This, he explained, is “part of my job.”
Lowe Lintas ceo Paul Hammersley chose his words with care, saying only: “We're in the middle of post-producing sixteen commercials for Heineken USA and Heineken global for 2002, and the client is very happy with the work we've done.”
News source: Adweek.com
