The agency was responsible for the Christmas campaign showing a woman giving birth at a nativity play. The ad provoked 570 complaints to the Independent Television Commission, leading Manor Bakeries to take it off air.
The review is being handled by Agency Insight, which is putting together a longlist of agencies to pitch for the brief. Manor Bakeries is owned by RHM, which has a roster of agencies including DDB London, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and TBWA\London.
Saatchis has held the Mr Kipling account since 2000. It handled the brand's return to TV advertising, retaining the "exceedingly good cakes" line made famous in the 70s in a campaign created by J. Walter Thompson. This saw the brand's first major image revamp since its launch in 1967 and the reinvention of Mr Kipling as the "man who made cakes so good you'd forgive him for anything".
Saatchis also handles Manor Bakeries' Lyons Cakes and Cadbury Cakes brands, neither of which have had a strong above-the-line profile for some time. It is understood that these two brands are not included in the review.
The pitch follows the appointment of Simon Foster as the head of marketing for Mr Kipling and Lyons Cakes last month. He moved over from Hovis, another division of RHM, which uses DDB London to handle its advertising.
His appointment was made by Kate Taylor, the director of consumer brands at Manor Bakeries, who took up her position last summer.
The review does not affect the media agency, Universal McCann, which won RHM's £10m media planning and buying account in January.
No one at Manor Bakeries or Saatchis was available for comment as ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 went to press.
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