The FTC's June 23 consent order approving Omnicom's $13.5 billion IPG acquisition represents an unprecedented moment that fundamentally changes how the world's largest media buying machine can operate.
For the first time in advertising history, the government has explicitly prohibited agency coordination based on political viewpoints, directly addressing conservative complaints about systematic bias while creating the planet's dominant advertising agency.
The combined entity's $25.6 billion in revenue dethrones WPP as the global leader, while the consent order's unprecedented political provisions signal a new era of regulatory oversight that every agency executive should understand.
Trump's FTC delivers on conservative promises
The consent order's explicit prohibition of politically motivated advertising boycotts stands out as its most significant feature. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, a Trump appointee, made clear this addresses "deliberate, coordinated efforts to steer ad revenue away from certain news organizations" that enlist "America's largest companies' economic weight unwittingly for political and ideological aims."
