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The move comes as Heineken prepares to relaunch its existing 3.4% Cold Filtered brand at 5% in a direct challenge to market leader Stella Artois, also a Lowe client.

In February, Heineken fired Lowe from its estimated $80m (£55m) business in the US in favour of D'Arcy and MediaVest, though at that time Lowe's London office retained the brewer's £10m UK and Ireland business. However, sources at Lowe stressed that the resignation is not a revenge move for what happened in the US and said the decision to resign the business was taken with great reluctance.

No new investment has been put into the Heineken Cold Filtered brand since last year's celebrity campaign in which D-list celebrities, including Paul Daniels and wife Debbie McGee, sung The Carpenters classic 'Close to You'.

Lowe, through its founder Frank Lowe, has been associated with some of the most admired and effective advertising in the beer sector though its Heineken and Stella work. Stella's "Reassuringly expensive" campaign was created more than 20 years ago, while Heineken's "Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach" was recently tweaked to "How refreshing. How Heineken".

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