Monday, July 7, 2008

Imperial over-reach.

No, this is not about the Roman Empire, or the British Empire, or the Soviet Empire or the American Empire.

It's not even about General Motors, whom both the NY Times and The Wall Street Journal report is contemplating both layoffs and the sale of some of its brands. (Apparently, GM has been hawking Hummer, but no one wants to pay even $1 billion for this dinosaur-waste-sipping dinosaur.)

No, what this post is about is Madison Avenue and its likeness to Detroit.

How long before Interpublic, WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, et al decide that it's time to divest itself of its agencies that have no reason for being except for the size they add to the bottom line--which keeps shareholders happy for the moment. (Agency holding companies, like chains like Starbucks, the Gap, etc. expand to the point of collapse.)

Well, the problem is, there's probably no one to sell these agencies to--except back to the agencies themselves. So until there is fundamental change in the advertising cosmos (notice I didn't say landscape) things will probably stay as they are.

Just wait, though.

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