Roots Canada has given Roche Macaulay & Partners 45-days’ notice and has taken its advertising in-house after a 17-month relationship.

Roots and Roche cite dissenting opinions about creative direction as the reason for the split.

Michael Budman, co-founder of the Roots brand and retail chain, says ‘the creative struggle got to be too hard.

‘We’re not interested in winning awards; we’re interested in building our brand,’ Budman says.

‘We have a clear vision of what we want and are confident we will be able to produce good advertising,’ he says.

A news release from Roche says Michael Budman and co-founder Don Green are ‘entrepreneurial guys, and they have very strong opinions about not only what their advertising should say, but exactly how it should look and feel.

The release says that while Roche expects ‘a lot of input from our clients, if our clients feel they can do the advertising better themselves, then there’s not much we can do to help them.’

Roots is replacing the agency with an in-house advertising co-ordinator and a roster of outside suppliers.

The retailer of casual clothing and footwear expects to open its 100th store this year.

Roots has 90 stores in Canada, seven in Japan, four in South Korea and will be opening its sixth u.s. store in San Francisco on July 4.