EDITORIAL: Mother win shows meritocracy rules.

A new year and still Britain's ad industry struggles to understand the implications of last year's most astonishing pitch result - the decision by Boots to put its pounds 90 million integrated account into a consortium led by Mother. Not since Ian Botham clouted Australia all over Headingley in 1981 to turn England's humiliation into victory can there have been a win so emphatically against the odds.

Mother's triumph will certainly have ambitious mid-sized independent agencies cheering from the boundary. The big battalions headed by J. Walter Thompson, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Publicis have been routed. No longer are such huge accounts theirs by divine right. No longer can they rely on resource alone to win the day. Mother has not only convinced Boots it can provide all the necessary back-up, but real excitement too.

What remains to be seen is if other big traditional advertisers will overcome their reluctance to work with a loosely aligned group of specialist agencies or continue to cling to the comfort blankets offered by the big groups.

For Mother, the win marks the completion of a significant rite of passage.

It cannot continue being famous for holding staff meetings in a caravan when ...