As Mergers Erase Legacy Brands, Employee Buyouts Could Save Advertising’s DNA: After its $13-billion acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom has begun a restructuring wave that will eliminate more than 4,000 jobs and retire some of the industry’s most iconic agency names. This merger may simplify corporate structures, but it also risks permanently damaging the cultural and creative heritage that built modern advertising.
As someone who entered the business as a rookie executive in the early 1990s, watching agency mergers and closures was painful. Three decades later, history is repeating itself—faster and deeper.
We Build Brand Legacies, Yet We Destroy Our Own
For decades, advertising professionals have advised brands to:
- Protect heritage,
- Revive identity,
- Reinvent models,
- Preserve equity.
We taught CEOs to never abandon the family silver because it represents pride, trust, and history.
Yet today, we are selling our industry’s family silver — not through a marketplace, but through consolidation, mergers, and closures.
We are applying step-motherly treatment to our own legacy while we passionately protect client legacies.
The irony is painful.
Tech DNA vs. Advertising DNA: Why We Must Think Differently
The advertising industry is increasingly following the tech industry playbook — and that is fundamentally flawed.
Tech can discard brands, pivot overnight, and rebuild without emotional or cultural backlash.
But advertising is the opposite:
- Our value lies in reputation, not speed.
- Our success is built on heritage, not mass scalability.
- Our culture is grounded in storytelling, not coding.
We are attempting to copy a model not meant for our DNA.
Instead of listening to financial analysts who say “merge,” “trim,” “erase,” we should be listening to the creatives and strategists who know the value of legacy.
Omnicom’s Restructuring and the Cultural Consequences
The consolidation erases names that shaped modern advertising:
- DDB, merged into TBWA.
- MullenLowe, absorbed into TBWA.
- FCB, folded into BBDO.
These are not just mergers.
These are cultural amputations.
Just as a nation can lose identity when its history is erased, the advertising industry is losing soul when its creative ancestry is discarded.
When We Advise Brands to Come Back, Why Do We Refuse to Revive Ours?
We have helped countless client brands reclaim their heritage:
- Old FMCG brands revived,
- Retailers modernized,
- Legacy luxury houses repositioned.
We celebrate comebacks in advertising history.
But we do not allow a comeback for our own agencies.
This is not only contradictory — it is self-destructive.
Instead of letting legendary agencies fade into corporate archives, we must give them a second life.
Employee Buyouts: A Smarter Way to Protect Legacy
Employee-Owned models prove this:
- Mower is thriving.
- Doe-Anderson remains competitive.
- Quiet Storm retained creative independence.
These examples show that:
- Clients stay,
- Culture survives,
- Creativity strengthens,
- Business models modernize.
Advertising agencies do not die because they are outdated.
They die because consolidation smothers their identity.
We Must Think Like Brand Rehabilitators, Not Corporate Liquidators
Rather than acting like finance-driven liquidation specialists, advertising professionals should act like what we naturally are:
- Brand builders
- Legacy protectors
- Cultural architects
- Storytellers
We cannot be the doctors who save every patient except ourselves.
The Future Begins With Ownership, Not Abandonment
If laid-off teams collaborate to buy out legacy agencies:
- Thousands of jobs can be protected,
- Historic brands can be revived,
- Creative power can be decentralized,
- Clients can regain diversity of ideas.
Instead of closing creative heritage, we must rebuild it.
Final Word
We have guided global brands through revivals for decades.
It is time to practice what we preach.
Advertising must stop destroying its own legacy.
We must stop selling the family silver.
We must stop giving step-motherly treatment to our heritage.
And we must start doing what we do best —
reinventing, rebuilding, and reviving.
Employee ownership isn’t nostalgia —
It’s strategy.
It’s survival.
It’s the path forward.
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