AdWeek reports on the internal debate among Mitsubishi and some of its major dealers as to whether or not the recent announcement of a creative review was a smart idea, given that a great deal of Mitsubishi's poor market performance had to do with massive marketing budget cuts and seemingly arbitrary and sudden messaging shifts. The automaker, so far the most committed to online advertising, faces dealer pressure to cancel the creative review, especially as incumbent Deutsch/LA showed signs it might not participate. Deutsch saw 40 percent of the intended marketing budget evaporate last year. Said one dealer in support of the review, "A lot of us thought a review was a good idea to put Deutsch's feet to the fire. It's like the seven-year itch. You don't want to leave your wife, but you're looking around."

The carmaker's U.S. sales declined 25 percent this year, and Ian Beavis, its senior marketing VP, left. Mitsubishi had been the most aggressive auto manufacturer in terms of embracing online media. It had increasingly been moving budgets out of traditional media and into online.

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