Campbell Doyle Dye, Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and Wieden & Kennedy will be battling for the account with the tea company expected to make an appointment by the end of April.
Tetley had a long-standing relationship with D'Arcy, first appointing the agency in 1979 and then reappointing it in 2001. It moved over to Leo Burnett a year later when D'Arcy was closed following the acquisition of Bcom3 by Publicis Groupe.
D'Arcy made a long-running series of ads featuring the animated Tetley Teafolk, friendly northern folk in the form of Sidney and the Gaffer, but in 2001 the brand decided to drop them and go for a younger image.
D'Arcy's first new work for the brand appeared in 2002 but quickly ran into trouble after regulatory rulings from the Independent Television Commission and the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints made by the Food Commission, which claimed health benefits made by two poster ads were misleading.
One ad claimed that: "Tetley is rich in antioxidants that can help keep your heart healthy". A second ran: "Go on, live a lot", implying that drinking tea could prolong the drinker's life.
At the time it announced it was hunting for a new agency, Tetley said it was looking for fresh ideas. Its media account remains with Starcom MediaVest.
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