• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, March 19, 2015

Over in the UK, the Marketing Agencies Association is urging companies to go on strike against Anheuser-Busch InBev for its "disgraceful" behavior dealing with ad agencies. The Marketing Agencies Association alleged A-B InBev required agencies to cut rates, offer free work and insist upon 120-day payment terms.

Responding to those accusations, an A-B InBev spokesperson said, “Our decisions as to appointments of marketing agency partners are based on a variety of factors, including the outcome of the creative pitch, account management and commercial terms, and all participating agencies are made aware of this at the outset. Payment terms are always set as part of a broader commercial negotiation and are established in mutual agreement."

The spokesman continued, “As part of the process, we ask all potential partners to provide details on many dimensions of their service offer so we can evaluate in a fair and objective manner the proposals we receive from each. We work hard to build sustainable partnerships with our agency partners and have many long-standing relationships of which we are very proud.”

See? Of course everything on the up and up!