Chiat/Day Gets Big NutraSweet Account : Advertising: The Venice agency will handle the company’s domestic business, which is worth $50 million.

Any time an agency wins a new piece of business, it’s considered sweet. But on Monday, when Chiat/Day/Mojo was handed a $50-million piece of advertising business, the win was NutraSweet.

The Venice ad firm was handed the domestic advertising business for the artificial sweetener that is found in products ranging from Diet Coke to Jell-O. Long-time agency Ogilvy & Mather’s Chicago office will continue to service the brand outside the United States, and create ads for the Deerfield, Ill.-based company’s Equal brand table top sweetener.

At a time when the West Coast advertising market is struggling, the win brings to Los Angeles about $50 million in new ad business--and along with it the prospects of some new jobs.

“We’ll definitely be hiring in several areas,” said Bob Wolf, chairman of Chiat/Day/Mojo’s North American operations. “We haven’t decided how many bodies yet.”

It is rare for a West Coast agency to lure away such a large client from the Midwest. The big win comes on the heels of the agency’s $10-million win last month of the Sparkletts ad account. Together, the two accounts will help broaden the agency into one that does far more than create ads for mega-client Nissan.

Although Chiat/Day already has a 25-person office in Chicago that serves Nissan, Wolf said that office will not handle any NutraSweet advertising. He said the Venice office has had “no problems” creating ads for client Eveready, which is headquartered in St. Louis.

For six months, Chiat/Day has created ads on a project basis for Sugar Delight, a new product that is a blend of sugar and NutraSweet. It has been test-marketed in the Midwest.

“We have been impressed with Chiat/Day’s ability to understand our business,” said Richard Nelson, vice president of public relations at NutraSweet. “We think they can develop a creative strategy that will help us.”

Executives from Ogilvy were unavailable for comment late Monday afternoon.

New ads for NutraSweet could begin appearing in the second quarter of 1991. Until then, the company is expected to continue running ads with the present slogan, “Why everything good tastes so good.” Agency and NutraSweet executives declined to state if that slogan will be replaced by a new one.