DIARY: CHI in front with 'picks' and O&M's an outsider leading 'turkey' stakes.

With the runners and riders just past the half-way mark we thought you'd like to know who are the favourites for the final gallop to the winning post - and who are the donkeys - in Campaign's annual 'pick and turkey' stakes.

First a bit of trackside news to surprise the punters. Time was when you'd have put your shirt on McCann-Erickson romping away with the booby prize for producing the year's largest number of advertising catastrophes.

No more. After what seems to have been some heavy use of the whip around the Herbrand Street creative department, McCann has forced a readjustment of the odds. No 'picks' yet but only one 'turkey' for Bacardi Breezer.

Instead, the wooden spoon looks destined for Docklands where Ogilvy & Mather has already managed four oven-ready birds - one more than McCann managed for the whole of 2002 - and Christmas is still five months away!

Looks as though Malcolm Poynton, recently returned from Oz to take charge of O&M's creative stable, might have to get the spurs on.

At the other end of the field, adland's equivalent of the 'housewives' choice', Clemmow Hornby Inge, is making the running. The agency that can't seem to do anything wrong at present has already amassed four 'picks' but can't afford to drop the pace.

Snapping at its hooves are the race's co-favourite, ...