Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. is putting its advertising account up for review without Los Angeles-based BBDO West, the automaker’s agency for the past three years.
“As Mitsubishi Motors begins a new three-year plan globally, it is appropriate for us to consider new possibilities,” Dan Kuhnert, the automaker’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, was quoted as saying in advertising trade publication Brandweek.
The review is expected to run through June 30.
BBDO, which did a series of commercials for Mitsubishi using obscure, alternative music, chose not to take part in the review, according to a spokesman.
Mitsubishi, part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp., has undergone a turnaround in the past few years.
Last year, the automaker sold 128,993 vehicles here, up 8% from 2006.
New autos and mended ties with dealers are credited with spurring the gain.
Mitsubishi got hammered by bad auto loans a few years ago by offering easy credit to younger buyers, some of them not entirely creditworthy.
So far this year, the poor market for auto sales appears to have caught up with Mitsubishi.
February sales fell 6.4% from a year earlier to 9,105 vehicles. Fewer sport utility vehicle and truck sales drove the decline.
