MediaPost reported the US Navy issued an RFP, launching a mission to identify its next White advertising agency.
Given President Donald J. Trump’s administration opposes DEIBA+—and Trump declared, “We ended DEI in America!”—will non-White advertising agencies play any role in the account review?
At least non-White advertising agencies might be relieved of facing the indignities associated with Prime Redlining and crumbs.
Expect competing White advertising agencies to be MIA on DEIBA+ too.
Incumbent VML spent many years churning out performative PR, erecting heat shields, and even gaining certification for DEIBA+ political propaganda. Time to admit it was all White lies.
In this scenario, RFP stands for Racism Fortification Proposal.
Navy Issues RFP For New Ad Contract
By Steve McClellan
The US Navy has issued a request for proposal for a new advertising recruitment contract.
The initial contract period is for one year and would start in January of 2027. If all extensions are executed, the contract would expire in July of 2032, according to the RFP.
WPP’s VML is the current incumbent, having won the last contract in 2021 (when the agency was known as VMLY&R). It also won the previous contract in 2015.
The total value of the current contract is estimated at $460 million.
The remit includes creative, media, strategy, research, field marketing and more.
The Navy RFP follows word in March that the US Army is in the early stages of picking an agency for its new recruitment contract. It has issued a request for information in advance of a formal competitive bidding process that could kick off in the spring of 2027 and take effect in 2028.
The army values the current 10-year contract, won by DDB in 2018, at $4 billion. DDB was folded into TBWA as part of the reorganization related to Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic.
The Navy RFP was reported on earlier this week by the Ratti Report, an industry newsletter focused on new business leads.
1 comment:
Same old same old. Even back when DEI requirements were in place, holding companies got around military requirements it by presenting a list of minority vendors in order to get the bid, then punted them aside and never awarded any real business to them after one of their agencies got the contract.
If pressed, they had their usual vendors run things through a pass thru company that was woman owned, at least on paper. Usually just a regular guy vendor's company who set up a shadow one in his wife's name. The same way all lottery contracts in every state are run today. So this will have no real effect on anything at all. Business rolls on like usual.
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