17274: On Papa Johns + Leo Name Game.

Advertising Age reported Papa Johns named Leo Chicago as its new White advertising agency.

 

So, a pizza chain still bearing the name of a founder no longer associated with the enterprise will be serviced by a White advertising agency that underwent a 2025 name update further separating the firm from its founder.

 

It’s a who’s who of who the fuck are you?

 

It also seems like a perfect spokesman opportunity for Pope Leo.

 

Papa Johns hires Leo Chicago as new creative agency

 

By Erika Wheless and Ewan Larkin

 

Papa Johns has hired Leo Chicago as its new creative agency as one of the nation’s largest pizza chains looks to bolster its marketing and overcome a sales slump.

 

The brand confirmed in early October it had initiated a creative agency review and had parted ways with The Martin Agency, which had held the account since late 2023. The former IPG shop is now part of Omnicom.

 

Joanne Davis Consulting supported the pitch. Dentsu’s Carat will continue to handle Papa Johns’ media buying.

 

The win adds another major food brand to Publicis Groupe-owned Leo’s roster. Leo New York won Subway in April and Coffee mate in September.

 

The change comes under Chief Marketing Officer Jenna Bromberg, who joined the chain in November 2024.

 

“Papa Johns is a challenger brand founded on quality, craft and pride in our product. A brand partner who can help us channel that spirit is essential,” Bromberg said in a statement. “The team at Leo Chicago brings a deep understanding of what makes Papa Johns distinct. Their insights-driven creative, cultural fluency and deep QSR expertise will help us power a modern marketing engine.”

 

The agency change comes as Papa Johns looks to become a bigger national player; it finished 2024 as the fourth-largest U.S. pizza chain by sales. But it has been stuck in a sales slump of late, with North American comparable sales down 3% in the third quarter ended Sept. 28. Comparable sales were up just 1% in the second quarter.

 

Domino’s has outperformed most of the pizza competition this year. Its U.S. same-store sales were up 5.2% in the third quarter.

 

Pizza Hut reported that its U.S. same-store sales were down 6% during the same period. Yum Brands is exploring “strategic options” for Pizza Hut, including a potential sale of the brand.

17273: Delayed WTF 64—Saluting International ERG Day.

 

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

 

International Employee Resource Group Day was celebrated on November 17, 2025.

 

Or was it? Don’t recall any White advertising agencies or White holding companies commemorating the occasion via performative PR and social media posts.

 

Then again, executing such messages would’ve undoubtedly been delegated to resident ERGs.

 

Also, Omnicom and IPG were probably plotting to prune and/or eliminate redundant ERGs.

17272: FCB RIP.

Advertising Age presented a retrospective on the eliminated FCB, highlighting milestones and signature changes throughout the years.

 

It’s a safe bet VYSICAL CEO Howard Draft feels the FCB finale is karmic retribution for having his name ingloriously erased from the masthead in 2014.

17271: On Omnicom Number Games.

 

Leaders at the new Omnicom presented a variety of spin to address the 4,000 jobs—and presumably, 4,000 humans—being ejected from the ginormous White holding company.

 

Omnicom Media CEO Florian Adamski refused to let layoffs define the story of the corporate acquisition scheme. “This is not about eradicating jobs,” Adamski insisted. “This is about building a company for the future.” Right. Except 4,000 people are now learning they won’t be part of the future—and may soon face difficult times ahead.

 

Omnicom Chairman, CEO, and Pioneer of Diversity John Wren said, “[Globally eliminating 4,000 positions is] going to allow us to meet and exceed the synergies that we promised the marketplace last December.”

 

That’s political rhetoric meaning, “I must deliver the cost reductions I promised to shareholders and investors.” In short, Wren will keep his job by cutting 4,000 drones’ jobs.

  

Wren also claimed impacted workers will be notified ASAP in December so as “not to leave people in a state of doubt.” Um, people at Omnicom and IPG have been left in varying states of doubt, confusion, and anxiety since December 2024 when the deal was announced.

 

Finally, Wren positioned the overall firing figure as “a very low single-digit type of efficiency.”

 

Advertising practitioners love to shift perspectives to distort perceptions. So, let’s play the game.

 

Sure, 4,000 bodies might not appear to be a big deal when viewed against the Omnicom and IPG combined total headcount. Hell, the two White holding companies already dumped roughly 6,200 drones ahead of the acquisition.

 

Yet has any multicrumbtual advertising agency ever had 4,000 employees? Combining the total rosters of every Black advertising agency—past and present—would likely fall far short of 4,000.

 

Has the US advertising industry ever employed 4,000 Dawn Chambers? Based on 2017 data from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there are probably much fewer than 400 Black women executives in Adland USA.

 

Sorry, but “a very low single-digit type of efficiency” equates to a very high triple-digit type of indifference.

17270: Reviewing Restructuring, Redundancies & RIFs.

Adweek reported Omnicom—upon closing its acquisition of IPG—announced the new structure along with the new leadership team.

 

As previously leaked, iconic White advertising agencies—including FCB, DDB, and MullenLowe—are being dumped.

 

Ditto 4,000 drones worldwide.

 

Given the honcho squad was immediately unveiled, it’s a safe bet the soon-to-be-unemployed have already been identified. Omnicom Chairman, CEO, and Pioneer of Diversity John Wren admitted as much when stating layoffs are rolling out currently.

 

Wren’s Naughty and Nice List undoubtedly rivals Santa’s annual performance review.

 

Omnicom to Cut 4,000 Jobs, Retire FCB, DDB, and MullenLowe 

 

BBDO, TBWA, and McCann emerge as the three global creative networks in post-IPG overhaul

 

By Audrey Kemp and Alison Weissbrot

 

Omnicom has announced its new structure and leadership team on the heels of completing its $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group on Wednesday.

The new holding company, led by John Wren as CEO, is organized into seven core divisions.

 

Creative arm Omnicom Advertising, which will continue to be led by current CEO and president Troy Ruhanen, includes TBWA, BBDO, and McCann as its three global networks. FCB will roll under BBDO, while DDB and MullenLowe become part of the TBWA network. All three brands will cease to exist.

 

Omnicom Media, run by Florian Adamski, includes legacy Omnicom agencies OMD, PHD, Hearts & Science, as well as former IPG agencies Mediahub, Initiative, and UM. It is the largest media organization globally by billings.

 

Duncan Painter will lead the Flywheel Commerce Network and OmniPlus, an upgraded version of the Omni platform, as CEO, while Sergio Lopez remains leading Omnicom Production, which will merge with IPG’s Craft. Luke Taylor will continue to run Omnicom Precision Marketing and Chris Foster will oversee Omnicom Public Relations.

 

Each division is led by a former Omnicom vet, save for Omnicom Health, which will be led by Dana Maiman (IPG Health) as CEO. She reports to Michael Larson, CEO of Omnicom Diversified Agency Services, who was previously interim CEO of Omnicom Health.

 

Additionally, all clients will have a dedicated lead, or “client success leader,” that ensures each is getting access to the right set of tools, talent, and capabilities across the network. These execs roll up into Jacki Kelly, chief client and business officer (formerly of IPG) and Andrea Lennon, chief client experience officer (formerly of Omnicom).

 

George Manas, former CEO of OMD Worldwide, will become chief growth and solutions officer, focused on orchestrating bespoke tech and data solutions for enterprise clients.

 

Omnicom execs Daryl Simm and Phil Angelastro will stay on as COO and CFO, respectively. Former IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky will remain as co-president and COO.

 

All entities with the name “IPG,” such as IPG Health and IPG Mediabrands, have been eliminated.

 

4,000 jobs on the line

 

As part of the restructuring, Wren estimates that around 4,000 positions will be eliminated globally. “That’s going to allow us to meet and exceed the synergies that we promised the marketplace last December,” he told ADWEEK.

 

The job cuts are in addition to the 3,200 roles IPG shed this year ahead of the acquisition, and the 3,000 staffers Omnicom let go after announcing the deal last fall.

 

The anticipated layoffs, which Wren said are rolling out currently, will bring the total number of eliminated positions to around 10,000, or roughly 8% of the combined organization’s 2024 headcount.

 

Cuts are focused on removing duplicate positions and trimming unnecessary management layers, Wren said. While he acknowledged that the layoffs impact “a lot of people’s lives, and we’re terribly sensitive to it,” he described the overall number as “a very low single-digit type of efficiency.”

 

Wren said affected employees will be notified as quickly as possible heading into December so as “not to leave people in a state of doubt.” Ruhanen said reductions began Oct. 1.

 

Adamski pushed back on framing the cuts as the defining story of the acquisition. “This is not about eradicating jobs. This is about building a company for the future,” he said.

 

Creative darlings

 

Omnicom chose BBDO, TBWA, and McCann as its global creative networks moving forward because of their clear positioning, established client relationships, and broad international footprints, Wren said.

 

“We’ve made the choice of which culture we want it to be, which brand we want it to be, and which methodology we’re putting our effort behind,” added Ruhanen.

 

Omnicom is also keeping many of its boutique and specialist agencies under the Omnicom Advertising Collective as well as IPG’s boutique creative agencies intact, including The Martin Agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Lucky Generals, Zimmerman, Mercury, GMR, Carmichael Lynch, GSD&M, Grabarz & Partners, Antoni, Lola, Africa, Serino Coyne, Bright Red Agency, and Merkley & Partners.

 

Specialist agencies such as Alma (which was part of the DDB network), Dieste, TMA, Agency 720, and Platinum Rye Entertainment will also remain intact.

 

Omnicom experiential agencies will continue to report to Ruhanen, while legacy IPG experiential shops will report to Krakowsky “for the time being,” Ruhanen said.

 

He added that employees will receive communications about reporting lines and transitions this week—“basically as quickly as possible” to move forward with the transition.

 

Media and Tech

 

A major focus of the announcement was OmniPlus, the next iteration of the Omni platform underpinned by Acxiom’s Real ID and Flywheel’s commerce infrastructure. Painter said OmniPlus will formally launch at CES 2026 and begin rolling out to the company’s top 10 major clients in Q1.

 

“It will be a fully end-to-end, integrated operating system for Omnicom, going from creative thought all the way through to media execution and reporting through to sales… all linked back to single consumer records by brand,” he told ADWEEK.

 

Paolo Yuvienco, Omnicom’s chief technology officer, added that the combined data set is “by far, bar none, the most elite data set in the world” on the buy side of advertising, and is already integrated with Omnicom’s agentic AI tools.

 

Media scale is also an anticipated advantage of the combination. Bringing the two organizations together, at a combined $73.4 billion in billings, will create a media powerhouse that “can get the best commercial deals for our clients and for ourselves,” Wren said.

 

Adamski emphasized, however, that principal media remains a “small portion” of Omnicom’s overall billings, but is an important “modern vehicle” for creating commercial value. “People that continue to simply claim that we’re growing because of principal media—it’s just not true. But my job is to bring the best possible value to our clients,” he said.

 

What’s certain is that Omnicom is building for a world where AI plays a central role in marketing. As Adamski put it: “In five years from now, we will be advertising and communicating with AI more than to human audiences.”

 

Editor’s Note 12/1 at 9:35am ET: This story has been updated to remove incorrect information provided by Omnicom about how the Omnicom Advertising Collective will be structured moving forward, including which agencies remain intact.

17269: New Omnicom Leads The Status Quo.

Adweek, Advertising Age, and other trade publications reported on reshuffled leadership at the new Omnicom after its acquisition of IPG, featuring executives selected from both present and pruned White holding companies.

 

The headshots (depicted above) display moderate DEIBA+ and divertsity.

 

Not surprisingly, the performative PR has no inclusion of a leading Chief Diversity Officer or Human Heat Shield—although the updated Omnicom website features a Global Chief Inclusion and Impact Officer who has been with the White holding company for roughly five years.

 

So, it looks like DEIBA+ decisions were quietly executed.

 

Did redundancy rejiggering reduce non-White representation overall, as well as diminish the number of Dawn Chambers within Omnicom, accelerating the unemployment challenges impacting US Black women?

 

This would constitute a DEIBA+ fail, no?

 

Welcome to Omnicom: The world’s leading marketing and sales company. Which looks like all White holding companies comprised of White advertising agencies.

17268: Regarding Redundancies, RIFs & Racism.

 

Much has been discussed on redundancies in the Omnicom acquisition of IPG, especially given the two White holding companies share many similarities regarding talent, services, practices, and property.

 

Yet it seems no one has examined addressing the DEIBA+ duplications.

 

The scheme combined one White holding company led by a Pioneer of Diversity with another White holding company regularly spewing gobbledygook about being “recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion.”

 

Why, it’s a cornucopia of commitment to cultural competence via performative PR, heat shields, divertsity, and faux philanthropy.

 

So, how many Chief Diversity Officers and Human Heat Shields does one White holding company need? Will ERGs be downsized, eliminated, or blended? What about proprietary programs like ADCOLOR®? Or delegating drafting the global DEIBA+ dedication declaration?

 

DEIBA+ has historically been relegated well below pressing professional priorities. Right now, AI (Artificial Intelligence) trumps AI (Artificial Inclusivity).

 

Will the Omnicom-IPG scenario present an opportunity to make progress or maintain the status quo/systemic racism?

 

The current anti-DEIBA+ vibe in the industry hints at the answer. Don’t expect transparency, tactics, or truth in the execution. Accountability and integrity will be in short supply too.

17267: Overreaction Of The Week.

 

Norlop VML in Ecuador is responsible for this White Energy stunt explained as follows:

 

White Energy is the first initiative that transforms a stadium’s emotion into real energy. During Liga de Quito’s Noche Blanca, we captured the fans’ chants and vibrations, converted them into clean kWh, and stored them in four Chery EQ7 vehicles. With that energy, we lit up the stadium for the first time in history.

 

Hey, the agency could’ve converted the White energy at VML to light up the entire country.

17266: FYI IPG RIP.

 

MediaPost reported IPG was officially delisted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after being acquired by Omnicom.

 

Next, expect thousands of redundant drones to be delisted from the rosters of White advertising agencies within the expanded Omnicom empire.

 

After A Half Century ‘IPG’ Is Delisted

 

By Joe Mandese

 

After more than half a century of trading under the “IPG” ticker symbol, the Interpublic Group of Companies has officially been delisted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

 

Following the closing of its acquisition by Omnicom earlier this week, the consolidated company will continue to trade as “OMC” on the NYSE.

 

Omnicom was a relatively late entry to public trading, launching its IPO in 1986—15 years after IPG—following the “big bang” merger of BBDO, Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Steers that formed Omnicom.

 

Papert Koenig Lois (“PKL”) was the first U.S. agency to go public in 1962.

 

A year later, Foote, Cone & Belding went public, sparking a wave of major agency public offerings, including Doyle Dane Bernbach (1964), Grey Advertising (1965), J. Walter Thompson (1969), and Interpublic (1971), which ultimately led to the public market capitalization that fueled the merger and acquisition activity that created the modern day agency holding companies.