Contrary to rumours and reports, Wieden + Kennedy has not lost Nokia mobile phones business globally and there is no pitch underway or planned for Nokia smartphones.

Contrary to rumours, Wieden + Kennedy has not lost half the Nokia account. Nor is the other half up for pitch.

What a day.

First you read on the front page of Campaign that one of your key global clients has given half the business to a competitor and put the other half up for pitch.

That story. (Above.)

Then a power cut closes down your server so you have no access to email, internet, hard drive…

Then the battery on your mobile gives out.

*sigh*

 The servers are still down but at least the story in Campaign was wrong. If you saw that article today you would have been led to believe that 'Nokia calls £90m pitch' for its global smartphones business. This isn't true. Nokia has confirmed that there is no such pitch.

In a double whammy shit sandwich, the article goes on to say "Nokia has appointed roster agency Fallon to its estimated £90 million global advertising account for its mobile phone range."

(Wow, so that's £180 million now? Or is that the same £90 million again? Can we just round up to £200 million?)

Anyway, Nokia has also confirmed that nobody else has won the global mobile phones account. And we haven't lost any business.

So, to be clear:

1. There is no global pitch for Nokia smartphones

2. We have not lost the global Nokia mobile phones business

So, how do stories like these get printed?

Journalists are keen to get a good story out there. They want to scoop their rivals, so they'll try to keep a story to themselves before releasing it. That may mean not having time to check it with all parties involved.

And agencies are desperate to get a good news story out there to raise their profile and boost or repair their reputation, so they may be tempted to enthusiastically massage a story into life.

What difference does it make? It's only a story in the trade press. Well, yeah. But it's a right pain in the arse when such a big bad news story is not true.

Reminds me of the time when Campaign ran a front page story about a 'forthcoming pitch' for the Visit Wales account that put Wieden + Kennedy 'under threat'. I posted a £1000 bet on this blog to the journalist who wrote the story that there was no pitch and we'd still have the business at the end of the year. That was four years ago. We still have the business. I never got my £1000. How we laughed.

Ah well, some days are better than others.