Yet another purge at WPP as Wunderman’s ECD Abie Ellis falls under the miscroscope

More news in from WPP, according to Campaign Wunderman – now the driving force in merged agency Wunderman Thompson – has suspended its ECD Abi Ellis (below) following an “investigation.”

We don’t know why, but we never do with these things.

This follows hard on the heels of the abrupt exit of Jon Sharpe as head of the London branch of merged agency VMLY&R. Sharpe says he’s pursuing other options, WPP says there’s been a complaint.

WTF is going on? Is WPP, post-Sorrell, some kind of swamp?

There certainly seems to be a big exercise in house cleaning going on under new WPP CEO Mark Read. But is sending in the HR team plus lawyers the best way to do it?

It’s easy for us outsiders to see this as a new incarnation of the Spanish Inquisition.

That may be an exaggeration. But this rather large corner of the ad business seems to have gone bonkers.