The Wolf Group continues its push south of the border with the acquisition of its third u.s. agency, Meldrum & Fewsmith Communications of Cleveland, Ohio.

As with other Wolf Group agencies, m&f will continue to operate autonomously under its current management.

Chris Perry, chairman and ceo of m&f, will join Wolf’s board of directors.

Meldrum & Fewsmith is a 67-year-old agency with annual billings of about $125 million and a roster of clients that includes national advertisers such as Dirt Devil, Libbey, Mr. Coffee, and Rubbermaid.

m&f received a lot of media attention for its recent Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner campaign that launched during this year’s Super Bowl.

The spots, which altered old movie footage to show Fred Astaire dancing with Dirt Devil products, scored higher day-after recall than both Coca-Cola and Nike, ending up No. 6 out of the 38 advertisers. Sales of the Dirt Devil upright model have climbed by 76% since the Super Bowl outing.

The Wolf Group, a 25-year-old Toronto agency, led by its chairman Larry Wolf, began to shape itself into a Canadian-based multinational more than 10 years ago when it bought a Buffalo, n.y. agency now known as Wolf Mansfield Bolling.

In 1992, it added Wolf Winterkorn Lillis of Rochester, n.y. to its holdings, and this year expects combined billings to be approximately $200 million.

Wolf, like many other Canadian agency executives, believes a u.s. connection is helpful when looking for new business in that country, but he chose a growth strategy opposite to most.

‘With few exceptions, the independent agencies in this country have sold out to large multinationals and become branch offices.

‘Their best and their brightest are generally working on $100-million accounts in New York, not on $5- and $10-million accounts in Canada.’