From Bubble to Rubble
Ad Finitum: WPP and the Death of a Sector
William Phillips
One worldwide agency chain was not enough for Martin Sorrell's WPP. Less than four years after the Saatchis' former "little numbers man" had struck out on his own, he added Ogilvy to JWT. The strains these acquisitions imposed were more than monetary: even if WPP works something out with its creditors, it is a dispirited and divided house whose financial forays will not quickly be forgiven.
Black Monday - 19 October, 1987 - was a false alarm for advertising agencies and the rest of the...