account conflict

Problem that arises when two directly competing products or services are handled by the same advertising agency. Because of the confidential nature of the client-agency relationship, clients are generally disapproving of an agency servicing competitive companies or products, because the agency would be privileged to information that might be either damaging to an advertiser if known by a competitor or useful in planning competitive advertising campaigns. Typically, this situation will result when agencies merge or when an advertiser acquires another company whose product competes with one the agency is already handling. An advertiser might choose to withdraw the account if a competitor is a client of one of the newly merged agencies.