Canada taps Cossette for media

[Toronto] The Canadian government finally named Cossette Media, Toronto, as its media agency of record, after two separate reviews. In March 2004, the government said it will cut media spending by 15% to about $52 million a year for the next three years. The first review was scrapped when agencies refused to pitch, claiming the government asked them to disclose too much sensitive information and restricted them from handling other government accounts. The government, after considering and rejecting handling its media account in-house, revised some requirements to attract agencies. It's unclear whether incumbent Mediavision/I.D.A. repitched. Cossette recently lost McDonald's Restaurants of Canada's estimated $32 million media assignment to OMD in a global alignment.