FBI Probes US Advertising Industry
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Last Thursday and Friday, and some of the weekend newspapers, ran stories discussing the ‘industry-wide scandal’ that was now being investigated by the FBI.
The Evening Standard (on Friday September 28, 2018) said that the FBI had already issues subpoenas to Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic and MDC Partners and wrote “The investigation is looking specifically at whether advertising agencies manipulated the media-buying process by receiving rebates from media outlets”, err NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!
The newspaper continued “but not passing that rebate on to their clients”.
The Wall Street Journal also reported the story and said “The investigation is looking at, among other things, nontransparent ad-buying practices, including agencies receiving rebates from media outlets … One advertising company under scrutiny in the investigation is Havas SA, the ad company owned by media conglomerate Vivendi SA”.
Campaign first reported the news back in June 2018.
October 3rd, 2018 at 16:41 @737
Maybe this subject should be covered more on these portals or at conferences as EVERYONE knows this happens in the UK and its a system that a few companies exploit to the maximum for serious financial gain bordering on corruption. As technology advances do we actually need poster specialists and this industry is prime for disruption.