ROLF WERNER ROSENTHAL AD AGENCY IS NEWEST MEMBER OF NELSON

ROLF WERNER ROSENTHAL AD AGENCY IS NEWEST MEMBER OF NELSON family of service companies for the health care products industries. The $ 60 mil. (in annual billings) health care advertising agency was acquired in late March by ex-Johnson & Johnson and Lever Brothers exec Wayne Nelson. The ad agency and the affiliated public relations firm, World Health Communications, was purchased from Ogilvy & Mather in an apparent defensive divestiture by that firm. Rolf Werner Rosenthal (RWR) and WHC join Nelson's other medical marketing subsidiaries, which include the Professional Detailing Network, Pharmacy Sales Network and NCI Consulting. PDN, a sales representatives company for OTC and prescription drug marketers, was Nelson's first entrepreneurial venture. Nelson started the detailing-for-hire company in January 1988 with two other ex-Lever execs. ("The Pink Sheet" June 6, T&G-2). Nelson was at Lever for a short time to help in the search for an OTC acquisition. That search eventually led to the purchase of Chese-Pond's. Nelson has taken his acquisitive interests and the J&J model of a family of companies into the health industry service businesses. RWR counts among its current clients Marion (for Cardizem), and Connaught Labs. The Cardizem account is a major one for the agency. Marion has given no indication of switching the account in the wake of the ownership change. The major management changes at RWR under Nelson have been at the top. The former chairman and founder of the firm in 1971, Rolf Werner Rosenthal, retired and was succeeded by Wayne Nelson. The president of the firm under Ogilvy, Ronald Souza, resigned immediately following the purchase. RWR Exec VP Philip Brady has taken over the position as president and CEO under Nelson. Howard Reiss is next in the management structure. Previously senior VP and managing director of World Health Communications, he has been promoted to president of WHC.