Why Riney Left Pinnacle.

You may have heard Hal Riney resigned the Pinnacle Foods account last Friday. There was no official statement as to why, but Agency Spy assumed it was because they need to make room for a new client.

Nice guess. Below, an internal Riney memo that hit our email this morning (author removed):

All:

This afternoon I informed Pinnacle Foods that we are resigning the account. The resignation is due to our wanting to make room for a significant new business win that will be announced publically [sic] next week and to better align the agency against a set of clients that better share our strategic and creative philosophy.

We did some excellent work on the business during the last 2 years and we will work closely with Pinnacle over the next 90-days to fulfill the Q1 workload and to transition the business to the agency of their choosing.

We wish Pinnacle nothing but success.

Thanks.

"Sorry, chumps, we just moved up in the world and can't take your money anymore." Kind of an asshole move. But I guess when you're named for an agency icon, you can do whatever the hell you want.

A wiser industry observer suggested this is just the kind of exit you make when your client (in this case, Pinnacle) is just a royal pain in the ass.

Hrm. Anyway, wonder who the snappy new scapegoat -- er, account -- is. Guesses?