New York shop Deutsch has quit the race for the $30–$40 million Universal Studios theme parks business.

“We’ve had a strong first half of the year and given the current client workload, we’ve decided to withdraw from the Universal review,” said agency spoke Vonda LePage.

Deutsch has had a successful few months since the start of the year, winning media and some creative duties for Revlon, the Verizon Super Pages account and the new Valdecoxib drug marketed by Pfizer and Pharmacia [WAMN: 17-Jul-01].

Five remain in the review, launched last month [WAMN: 24-Jul-01]: Los Angeles shop davidandgoliath; The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia; Dallas’s Richards Group; McKinney & Silver in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Doner in Southfield, Michigan.

Conspicuous by its absence is incumbent Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG in New York. Media duties, unaffected by the review, remain at DDB in Los Angeles.

News source: Adweek.com