• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:30 AM

Tim Delaney's agency, Leagas Delaney, nearly went under in 2003 after losing Adidas, one of its biggest accounts. Its fortunes are on the rise again thanks, in part, to new clients like the Body Shop, the cosmetics retailer owned by L'Oreal, Dyson, a vacuum-cleaner manufacturer, and Timberland, the footwear and clothing maker.

Delany's biggest challenge may be the turnaround of Timberland. Delaney told Timberland executives that its chunky boots needed to shed their edgy image -- created over years of being the footwear-of-choice for hip-hop artists and their fans -- and said its promotion of environmental causes was distracting from its products.

A new $30-million TV campaign is an example of how marketers who can't afford to sponsor the Olympics are piggybacking on the games. A Timberland-clad man runs, jumps and hurdles through a forest to a mountain summit, as though on a winners' podium. A new slogan follows for the Stratham, N.H., company: "Take it All On." It replaces the previous slogan: "Make it Better."

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