WPP announced it was closing (maybe pausing is a better word) its operations in Russia late last week and we expected the other big ad holding groups to follow suit. So far WPP hasn’t been killed in the rush.
No word yet from Publicis (which has a big operation in central and eastern Europe), Omnicom, Interpublic, Havas and Dentsu, which needs to cosy up to the Chinese, given the extent of its business in that region.
This is pretty craven by any standards as most big brands have said they’re pausing operations following the invasion of Ukraine even though many, McDonald’s for example, employ thousands of people in the country. Amazing that the US can ban oil imports from Russian but US-based Omnicom and Interpublic seem to think it’s business as usual.
