As morals waver, Aussie indies can help brands lead

While the Omnicom acquisition of Interpublic had previously seemed to be just the latest in a long line of agency consolidations and holding company expansions, it could well become a defining moment for our industry – and our country.

Jen Sharpe, founder and managing director of Think HQ, an independent ad agency.

While the Omnicom acquisition of Interpublic had previously seemed to be just the latest in a long line of agency consolidations and holding company expansions, it could well become a defining moment for our industry – and our country.

The US Federal Trade Commission’s decision last week to approve the merger included a unique clause that bars the world’s largest advertising group from steering advertising investment based on political or ideological views.

The FTC’s acquisition approval requires Omnicom to agree to not (unless legally required) direct advertisers’ money based on the political views, beliefs or the content of the media publisher.

This means Omnicom agencies cannot refuse an advertiser’s request to place ads with certain media outlets or refuse to do business with certain advertisers based on the advertiser’s own political views or beliefs.

While the FTC clause technically only applies within the US market, in an increasingly global ecosystem, the ramifications for Australian businesses are very clear.

The sheer scale of cruddy compromise contained within this clause represents an inflection point for our industry, for public discourse, and the quality of governance in Australia. And these conditions were drafted halfway around the world, dictated by a government no Australian voted for and embodying values few Australians share. We’ve known for some time that when it comes to matters of safety, fundamental truths, equality, and inclusion, when Donald Trump sneezed we would eventually catch cold.

But this is no cold. It’s a pandemic.

There is now a real and present danger that Australian organisations that all need the brilliant creative minds working within this new Omnicom megapoly will find themselves unable to engage them due to a tsunami of conflicts. Charities and healthcare providers, start-ups and super funds, state and federal governments alike – the impact is as significant as it is widespread. You can’t have an agency with tobacco cash on its books spruiking your cancer prevention campaign any more than you want your ad buyer boosting the launch of your new Pride range of sneakers on the bot-filled hate farm of Musk-era X.

As a country, we would not allow a piece of major Australian infrastructure to pass quietly into the hands of a foreign government, hostile or otherwise. Yet here, without any locus of influence or control, a substantial portion of our industry’s fundamental operating principles have been de facto mandated by a US administration pursuing a type of social agenda that Australian voters resoundingly rejected only weeks ago.

Fifteen years ago, I built an agency on the conviction that we need to speak to today’s Australia – in the language, on the issues, and in the places that today’s Australia lives and breathes. You simply cannot speak authentically to today’s Australia if the script is being edited, or entirely written, to conform to a worldview that perceives perversion where we see equality, boxes ticked where we celebrate genuine progress, and fundamental decency as something to trample rather than fiercely protect. It simply won’t work.

Beyond this ideological incursion, the corrosive impact this merger will have on the quality of creative output is profound. Being stripped of moral authority and choice will erode the quality of work in a field where Australia has historically excelled. Good people doing good things for other good people creating good work – it’s the ethos upon which Think HQ was built. Good people compelled to execute whatever they’re told, by whoever pays, will assuredly not produce work of value or impact.

I feel deeply for the thousands of agency staffers facing this unsettling new reality, and especially for their leaders, who must now navigate their roles devoid of moral authority to create, strategise, advertise, or advise authentically.

But this inflection point presents an unprecedented opportunity for leadership in different spaces. It must be the independent agencies like mine that not only make the case against aberrations like the caveats that underpin this merger, but step proudly into the space Omnicom’s owners have forced their companies and their talented people to vacate.

Independent agencies will supercharge our DEI work as others withdraw theirs. We’ll partner fearlessly with Australian organisations – and governments – to deliver work that remains free of conflict of interest, unafraid to turn a profit but steadfastly refusing to be driven by profit at any cost.

And we’ll call out bullshit wherever we see it, without fear or favour, because integrity demands nothing less. We’ll confidently navigate the critical shades of grey and stand firm when necessary, guiding our clients to do the same.

The industry has been split in two, with agencies that can do as they choose, and those that must do as they’re told. It’s time for our independents – agencies that still have agency – to step up and seize the moment.

Jen Sharpe is founder and managing director of Think HQ.