The 4As opens its doors to a big world of trouble

At the association's leadership conference in San Francisco at the end of April, Nancy Hill, president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, outlined two controversial moves. The first was to officially change the organization's name to its nickname, the 4As. Second was to open up membership to non-US agencies to provide a new international business network to those not affiliated to a global group or network. Hill is confident she has the support to drive it forward -- not only in the US, but also in Asia-Pacific and South America, where she has been approached by individual agencies but has yet to formally speak to the equivalent trade bodies.