CLOSE-UP: LIVE ISSUE/BURGER KING - Can DLKW give Burger King a new edge in the UK? Camilla Palmer reports on the issues facing fast food and DLKW in the UK market.(Brief Article)

Whether the senior executives at Burger King began this week with a spring in their step or a feeling of dread is hard to guess. The previous seven days had been tumultuous for the fast-food company on both sides of the Atlantic.

Along with McDonald's, KFC and others, it faces legal action from overweight Americans who claim the companies have knowingly marketed products that cause obesity. Meanwhile, Burger King has been sold by its parent company, Diageo, and, here in the UK, the brand is working with a new ad agency after ditching Lowe for Delaney Lund Knox Warren.

Neither of the last two events qualifies as a bombshell, exactly. Diageo took the decision to focus on its core drinks brands two years ago and has been negotiating a sale of Burger King ever since. Lowe's grip on the account has been shaky for some time, following the network's loss of the pounds 280 million US account to McCann-Erickson in January 2001. McCann lost the business barely a year later, although the account is handled by a variety of Interpublic agencies in the US.

In the UK, Lowe narrowly escaped losing its pounds 10 million business last year when it emerged that Burger King had invited Bates UK and DLKW to pitch for the account amid concerns the brand was losing further ground to McDonald's. Things appeared to have been patched up, some claim by the intervention of Lowe's then chief executive, Paul Hammersley, when the pitch process dissolved and Lowe went on to create the current 'OK BK' campaign.

The campaign features Burger King staff demonstrating, through a series of vignettes focusing on ingredient procurement, how far the company goes to make its products the best.

However, DLKW kept close to the scent of fast food, and is thought to have been in negotiation with Burger King executives almost continually since the abandoned pitch.

The situation heated up again in June when news broke that Burger King had parachuted in John Valentine, the head of its US interactive agency, VML, to lead a six-month brand strategy review in the UK. His arrival came hot on the heels of an international marketing shake-up, which saw the arrival of Chris Clauser as the global chief marketing officer and executive vice-president.