She was young and inexperienced and employed by a giant agency to whom Britt was the important client, not me.

The intensive campaign, which began in earnest last month, is pitting a giant marketer and its giant agency against 86 smaller shops.

Four other giant agencies, including the 1,500 company-owned properties of American Express, barely exceeded 1992's air sales.

"It's unspoken but we know that's a possibility," a senior executive at a giant agency said.

Agency executives involved in the review said the giant agency assured Nynex that its top executives would work on the account.

Its financing came "predominantly from giant German agencies which would simply cease contributing if previous grants were not scrupulously accounted for."

Richard M. Nixon once proposed in a budget to combine all the Cabinet departments into four giant agencies.

Unlike her stints at the other two giant agencies, which she joined from the outside, Ms. Beers's move to Thompson represents a homecoming.

Sometimes, that strategy can work wonders, as it did in July for two giant agencies.

But whatever his words, a giant agency is hoping to heed that 19th century sentiment as part of a self-promotional campaign for the 21st.