Question: When is an account loss not an account loss? Answer: When the account was really just a project.

That’s the line Mother London is taking anyway after Campaign learned earlier this week that the agency will no longer be working with Reckitt Benckiser on its £66 million global Nurofen ad business. The agency was appointed to the account back in October 2009 and was thought to be creating a series of campaigns for the pain relief brand.

It’s not news that the account has moved back to Euro RSCG because it quietly happened last December but Mother’s reaction seems instructive in these days when the debate over global creative solutions is raging. Here’s Mother’s Stef Calcraft on the split: “RB approached Mother two years ago for a breakthrough idea on Nurofen. We were asked to pitch against Euro and won the assignment which led to the Nurofen campaign. Initially envisaged as a year project it has been extended twice so that Nurofen could roll out   internationally beyond the UK with adaptation being handled by Euro. The project came to an end last December although Mother is still engaged finalising international master versions for roll-out  and we look forward to further ‘breakthrough’ collaborations with RB in the 
future.”

Mother did well to win the brief that resulted in the creation of the Nuro character. But apparently never cemented the relationship beyond project status. As Euro itself has found out with the recent loss of global business from Jaguar and Dulux (two pieces of business that were very definitely not projects) it’s hard to please all your international clients all of the time.