17375: WPP Media Whistleblower Lawsuit Blowing Up…?

 

Digiday reported the latest news involving a $100 million whistleblower lawsuit filed against WPP last year.

 

The accusations target WPP and GroupM, the latter which was rebranded under the WPP Media banner in 2025.

 

If the lawsuit ultimately impacts WPP Media, will the former GroupM shoulder the bulk of financial burdens or will all media firms in the network equally share the troubles?

 

Expect a crumby reduction of performative promises made to Black-owned media too.

 

In fighting a whistleblower suit, WPP put its own account of media agency trading on the public record

 

By Seb Joseph

 

The $100 million whistleblower lawsuit Richard Foster filed against WPP last November is back in focus. New court filings — including WPP’s motion to dismiss and exhibits that place Foster’s own internal documents into the public record for the first time — have added significant texture to both sides of a case that initial headlines only scratched the surface of.

 

Most notably among the exhibits is Foster’s own internal report to GroupM CEO Brian Lesser, which contains internal data on client opt-in rates, platform spend, and income targets that haven’t been public until now. The materials were first reported by The Times.

 

Before unpacking those materials, here’s a recap of how the case reached this point. 

 

Who’s suing whom

 

Foster spent 17 years at GroupM, ending as global CEO of Motion Content Group — the division that co-produced Love Island, managed roughly $500 million in annual entertainment investment, and by his own filed data was posting 140% US revenue growth in his final year. He was fired on July 10, 2025, the day after WPP’s stock dropped 18% on a trading update disclosing serious deterioration at WPP Media. He filed suit in November 2025 against WPP and GroupM (since rebranded WPP Media), seeking at least $100 million, Business Insider reported. 

 

What Foster alleges

 

Foster claims GroupM, which according to the complaint controlled roughly $60 billion in annual client ad spend at its peak, ran a hidden profit center by systematically retaining rebates that should have gone back to advertisers. Allegedly, GroupM’s media trading arm would aggregate client budgets to hit volume thresholds with vendors, triggering rebates in the form of free or discounted inventory. Rather than returning those benefits to clients, GroupM allegedly reclassified the inventory as “proprietary media,” sold it back through opt-in agreements, and booked the spread as “non-product related income.” Foster estimates GroupM generated $3 to $4 billion in rebate-driven deals over five years and improperly retained $1.5 to $2 billion of it.

 

The executives Foster implicates include Mark Patterson, now global president of WPP Media, whom he identifies as the primary architect of the rebate strategy and who publicly called rebates “not a dirty word” in 2016; Andrew Meaden, global chief investment officer, who allegedly institutionalized the practice and in one meeting proposed diverting client spend away from Meta because Meta refused a proprietary deal; and WPP general counsel Nicola McCormick, who Foster alleges privately described the rebate situation as “existential” while declining to formally investigate.

 

The document at the center of everything

 

In December 2024, at incoming GroupM CEO Brian Lesser’s request, Foster submitted a 36-page internal report, dubbed “Project Claridges”, laying out both a critique of GroupM’s trading’s practices and a proposal for a new consolidated entertainment division with projected net sales of over $2 billion by 2029. The report contains internal data that is now in the public court record, including a breakdown showing that among GroupM’s top 30 U.S. billing clients, representing $13.5 billion in total billings, only 5% of eligible spend was actually used through the proprietary inventory deals. 

 

Breaking it down further: among the top 10 clients alone, representing $8.5 billion in billings, 62% of their spend went through non-proprietary channels entirely, and 91.9% of the proprietary inventory generated went unused. Google, GroupM’s single largest US client at $2.3 billion in annual billings, utilized just 0.51% of the proprietary inventory its budget was helping to generate, meaning 99.5% went unused. These were the clients whose collective spending was being used to hit the volume thresholds that triggered the rebates in the first place.

 

Lesser acknowledged the report’s concerns and said he’d investigate further. He then asked Foster to send Patterson a “sanitized” version excluding criticism of GroupM’s trading arm. Before Foster could do so, Lesser forwarded the unedited original to Patterson. Patterson, having read a detailed critique of his own practices, told Foster he had “all he needed.” Within hours, Foster’s division was placed under Patterson’s oversight. Six months later he was fired.

 

Where the money was being spent

 

The internal documents also show the scale of GroupM’s platform relationships in 2023, establishing the leverage at the center of the alleged scheme. Globally: Google accounted for $9.4 billion in spend, Meta $3.7 billion, TikTok $1.1 billion, Amazon $1.1 billion, and The Trade Desk $1.1 billion. In the US: Google represented $4.9 billion, Meta $1.4 billion, Disney $835 million, NBCU $700 million, Paramount $540 million, and Warner Bros. Discovery $417 million. Total tracked global platform spend: $18.5 billion. U.S. network and platform spend: $9.8 billion.

 

With that volume to direct, GroupM had considerable power to pressure vendors into proprietary arrangements — and, the complaint alleges, to penalize those who refused.

 

WPP’s defense

 

WPP’s motion to dismiss makes three arguments worth taking seriously. 

 

First and most damaging to Foster: according to a sworn affirmation from Lesser, Foster’s counsel sent WPP a draft complaint on October 10, 2025 — more than two months before filing — and threatened to go public unless GroupM agreed to a large severance payment within 30 days. WPP refused, and the lawsuit followed. WPP argues that offering to stay silent for a payout is fundamentally incompatible with being a whistleblower.

 

Second, WPP contends that the Project Claridges report — Foster’s supposed evidence of protected disclosure — contains no mention of illegal activity. Its position is that it’s a business proposal for Foster’s own promotion, not a whistleblower document, and that Foster is retroactively reframing an ambitious pitch.

 

Third, Foster was among hundreds of U.S. GroupM employees and thousands globally let go in a documented restructuring. His entire division was eliminated. Six months elapsed between his last alleged report and his termination.

 

Why it matters beyond the lawsuit

 

The China backdrop lends the allegations weight. In October 2023, Chinese authorities raided GroupM’s offices and detained more than 30 employees for systematically retaining client rebates — precisely what Foster claims was happening globally. WPP hit a 27-year stock low in October 2025 when new CEO Cindy Rose publicly conceded WPP Media had “lost its way”. 

 

Where it likely ends up

 

A settlement would not be surprising. WPP cannot afford the discovery process, with internal communications about rebate practices potentially feeding both the shareholder litigation and client contract reviews. But the extortion allegation gives WPP real leverage to limit the payout.

 

The bigger question the case raises has nothing to do with Foster specifically: if GroupM’s own internal data shows its largest clients were almost entirely not benefiting from the proprietary inventory deals that generated nearly $1 billion in annual agency income, what exactly was the business model? That’s a question advertisers, regulators, and shareholders are now all asking — with or without this lawsuit.

 

WPP declined to comment.

17374: BHM 2026—Advertising Age On DEIBA+ Hiring.

For Black History Month, Advertising Age is publishing content from Blacks in Adland, covering a variety of topics.

 

The content below is titled, “Why agencies need to recommit to diversity hiring.”

 

Okay, but is it technically a recommitment if there was no DEIBA+ commitment from the start?

 

The true problem: White advertising agencies are committed to systemic racism, recommitting at every opportunity—ultimately limiting DEIBA+ opportunities.

 

Why agencies need to recommit to diversity hiring

 

By Chris Witherspoon

 

Every February, someone asks me to write something. A reflection. A rally cry. A “here’s how far we’ve come.”

 

And this year? I’m not sure what to say.

 

Black History Month is nearly over. The calendar says celebration. LinkedIn says thought leadership. But if I’m honest, what I feel most right now isn’t inspiration.

 

It’s concern. Because the numbers aren’t moving the way we hoped.

 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black professionals make up roughly 13% of the U.S. workforce, but in advertising, PR, and related industries, that number sits closer to 6%–7%. Leadership representation is even thinner. Progress over the past decade has been incremental at best—flat in some places.

 

Industry reports from the 4As show that diversity hiring gains made in 2020 and 2021 have slowed or reversed as budgets tightened and mergers accelerated.

 

Add to that the political crosswinds around anything labeled DEI. In some boardrooms, the conversation has shifted from “How do we do more?” to “How do we stay out of the headlines?” Scrutiny is louder. Risk tolerance is lower. And inclusion is often the first thing quietly deprioritized.

 

At the grassroots level, we feel it too.

 

The BLAC Internship Program—the nonprofit I chair— exists to open doors for Black and underrepresented talent into marketing and communications careers. This year, we saw a record number of applicants. Interest didn’t cool—it climbed.

 

But agency participation has softened. Not because the talent disappeared, but because priorities have shifted. The result? More students are ready to step in, but fewer seats are available.

 

That gap is hard to ignore.

 

The same pattern is showing up at the 4As MAIP program, long considered the gold-standard pipeline into our industry. When hiring freezes hit, diverse candidates tend to feel it first.

 

To be clear: it’s hard for everyone right now. Mergers. Layoffs. AI disruption. Clients consolidating rosters. Entry-level hiring slowing. I own an agency; I understand the pressure.

 

But here’s what worries me. In moments of economic strain, inclusion gets reframed as optional. A “nice to have.” Something we’ll return to when times improve.

 

History suggests that when momentum pauses, regression follows. That’s the part I don’t want to normalize.

 

So what do I say this February?

 

If applications are down, we recruit harder. If hiring slows, we protect the pipeline. If belief is wavering, we demonstrate commitment.

 

Not performative posts. Not one-month campaigns. Sustained action.

 

Black History Month shouldn’t be the only time we talk about access and representation. It’s simply the reminder that progress isn’t permanent.

 

Maybe that’s the message this year: Not a celebration. A recommitment.

 

Chris Witherspoon is CEO of DNA&Stone and chair of BLAC

17373: Taking Whitewashing To Wuthering Heights.

 

 

From The New York Times…

 

Jacob Elordi, Heathcliff and the Controversy Over ‘Wuthering Heights’

 

The character’s racial identity is at the heart of accusations that the film’s casting is “whitewashing.” But what does the original novel really say?

 

By Esther Zuckerman

 

In Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” Heathcliff is described as a “dark-skinned gipsy.” In Emerald Fennell’s new film “Wuthering Heights,” the character is portrayed by Jacob Elordi, a white actor from Australia.

 

Ever since Elordi was announced in the role, the choice has stirred up controversy online, where authenticity in casting is highly prized. Some frustrated fans have argued that the casting whitewashes the role. But Brontë scholars say that much of what the author writes about the character’s race remains up for interpretation, even if the consensus is that he was probably not intended to be white.

 

As a boy, Heathcliff is brought into the home of Catherine Earnshaw (who becomes his romantic obsession) by her father, Mr. Earnshaw. Quite a few passages in the novel suggest that Brontë, who died a year after its publication, intended to write Heathcliff as a person of color. In addition to being called “dark” and a “gipsy,” he is also referred to as a “Lascar,” a term for South Asian laborers on British ships.

 

At one point, Heathcliff compares himself with Edgar Linton, whom Catherine will eventually marry, saying, “I wish I had light hair and fair skin.” The servant Nelly Dean suggests that Heathcliff could be a “prince in disguise,” continuing, “Who knows but your father was emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen.”

 

Susan Newby, learning officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England, said, “There is a sense that he is not white Anglo-Saxon, he’s something else, but you don’t know what that is.”

 

Some scholars believe that Brontë was using Heathcliff to comment on the Liverpool slave trade. Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff from Liverpool, and Nelly, who narrates this part of the action, explains that Earnshaw saw Heathcliff starving and asked after his “owner.”

 

It makes sense that Brontë would be interested in slavery. Her father, Patrick Brontë, was associated with the abolitionist politician William Wilberforce, who, according to the Parsonage Museum, helped pay for Patrick to study at Cambridge.

 

Reginald Watson, an associate professor of literature at East Carolina University, has studied questions of Blackness in the works of the Brontës, including Emily’s sister Charlotte, the “Jane Eyre” author. “My belief is that because of the father’s involvement in abolitionism that both of the authors included connections to slavery in some form,” Watson said. His position is that while Heathcliff “may not be totally Black,” he is mixed.

 

Another theory, however, is that Brontë was using Heathcliff to comment on prejudices against the Irish, since her father was from Ireland and she was writing at the start of the potato famine there. “Think about Heathcliff who was brought from Liverpool and speaks a sort of gibberish,” said Elsie Michie, a professor of English at Louisiana State University. “The description of Heathcliff conforms almost exactly to the caricatures of the Irish.”

 

Michie added that the “dynamics of this novel are about otherness in various ways, and that otherness is in Heathcliff.”

 

Onscreen, however, Heathcliff has largely been played by white actors, including Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes and, perhaps most famously, Laurence Olivier in William Wyler’s 1939 version opposite Merle Oberon as Catherine. (Oberon actually was South Asian but hid that to ascend in Hollywood at the time.) A notable exception is Andrea Arnold’s 2012 adaptation, in which the adult Heathcliff was played by the Black actor James Howson. In an interview with NPR at the time, Arnold said, “In the book it was clear he wasn’t white-skinned. I felt that Emily was not committing exactly; she was playing with her own difference as a female.”

 

Fennell’s version does away with references to Heathcliff’s race, instead largely focusing on his tortured romance with Cathy (Margot Robbie). Still, the cast doesn’t lack diversity entirely. Nelly is played by the Vietnamese American actress Hong Chau, and Shazad Latif, who is of Pakistani descent, plays Edgar Linton.

 

Asked about the Heathcliff casting by The Hollywood Reporter, Fennell emphasized that her decision was based on how she saw the text. “I think the thing is everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it, and so you can only ever make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it,” she said.

 

Speaking at the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival, hosted by the Parsonage Museum last year, Fennell said she thought Elordi “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff” on the first copy she read.

 

Fidelity in casting has continued to be a hot topic. After Odessa A’zion was hired for the forthcoming adaptation of Holly Brickley’s novel “Deep Cuts,” there was an uproar because her character is described as half-Jewish, half-Mexican, and A’zion has no Mexican heritage. She dropped out of the project and explained on Instagram, “I hadn’t read the book and should have paid more attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting.”

 

But while Newby, for instance, said she believes that Brontë presents Heathcliff as nonwhite, she also thinks the author leaves room for discussion. “She deliberately keeps it ambiguous,” Newby said.

 

At the same time, Newby isn’t bothered by Elordi’s casting, in part because Fennell has been so explicit about the film being from her own perspective. The director makes a number of major changes, getting rid of some characters and altering details of Cathy and Heathcliff’s interactions. “Somehow I feel more bothered by some past adaptations that have very unquestionably, unthinkingly showed him as being white without ever really reading the book and thinking, ‘Right, this is how it’s described,’” Newby said. “It was almost that was a default. You won’t be taken seriously as a lead if he’s not white.”

 

The mystery is also part of the appeal of Heathcliff: We never do learn his origins before Earnshaw brings him into that household.

17372: BHM 2026—NADI Marketing.

 

 

NADI Marketing presents “9 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month: Campaigns & Partnerships Ideas for Sustainable Brands”—comprised of 5 BHM Campaign Ideas and 4 Strategic Partnerships for BHM.

 

It’s a cornucopia of competent creative conception for the culturally clueless—likely delivered for crumbs.

17371: BHM 2026—The UK.

 

In the UK, Black History Month will be celebrated October 1–31, 2026. Yet the official website already features lots of content.

 

The 2026 UK BHM Theme is: “Reclaiming Narratives”—which seeks to highlight untold stories, correct historical inaccuracies, and celebrate the contributions of Black people to British society.

 

According to the website, the festivities will include “Honouring Black Britain 2026”—an “initiative to formally recognise Black individuals whose lives, leadership, and service have made a measurable and meaningful contribution to Britain.”

 

Hey, Black history is British history too.

17370: BHM 2026—Kellogg’s.

It might not be an official BHM 2026 tribute, but MediaPost reported Kellogg’s gave Tony the Tiger a hip-hop reboot.

 

The campaign underscores how White brands, White advertising agencies, and White critters love hip hop.

 

Cultural appropriation is Gr-r-reat!

 

Kellogg’s Gives Tony The Tiger Hip Hop Reboot

 

By Sarah Mahoney

 

In an effort to encourage kids to tap their inner tiger, Kellogg’s is rethinking a classic mascot — and his theme song. The new effort positions the big cat as one of the original “Day Ones,” a long-time friend to teens looking for a mood boost at the breakfast table.

 

Hip-hop artist J.I.D. reimagines Tony’s iconic 1990s jingle, “Hey Tony,” tying it to a limited-edition Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes release. To build cultural buzz, the brand is also introducing Tony the Tiger x J.I.D. “Day Ones” merchandise, along with a special “Day Ones” cereal box featuring J.I.D. on the packaging. A QR code takes people to a full-length version of the track on Spotify.

 

The drop includes a full-length version of the track, with original verses designed to echo Tony’s signature motivational energy — a reflection, the company says, of the confidence and optimism the brand hopes to inspire.

 

“Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger have always stood for encouragement and belief,” said Laura Newman, vice president of brand marketing at WK Kellogg Co., in the release. “Hip-hop is a culture built on that same energy, so teaming up with J.I.D. was a natural connection for us to bring back ‘Hey Tony’ in a way that honors helping to bring out your greatness for a new generation.”

 

The packaging also includes a QR code linking to the track on Spotify. The song is set to debut next week at the brand’s “Day Ones” Bowl Game, a showcase featuring a marching-band-driven pep rally, including a performance by Stephenson High School’s “Sonic Sound” Marching Band from Stone Mountain, Georgia, J.I.D.’s alma mater. Four local teams will compete in a 7-on-7 football playoff for the title.

 

WK Kellogg Co., home to numerous breakfast cereal brands, was acquired last summer by the Ferrero Group for $3.1 billion. The Luxembourg-based company, best known for its extensive candy portfolio, described the acquisition as part of its growth strategy to expand across more consumption occasions “with renowned beloved brands and strong consumer relevance.” 

17369: Reverend Jesse Jackson (1941–2026).

 

From The Guardian…

 

Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader, dies aged 84

 

By Melissa Hellmann and Martin Pengelly

 

The Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil rights campaigner who was prominent for more than 50 years and who ran strongly for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, has died. He was 84.

 

“Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement.

 

“We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

 

No cause of death was given.

 

Jackson had had progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) for more than a decade. He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was also twice hospitalised with Covid in recent years.

 

A fixture in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics since the 1960s, Jackson was once close to Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

 

In an interview with the Guardian in May 2020, Jackson said: “I was a trailblazer, I was a pathfinder. I had to deal with doubt and cynicism and fears about a Black person running. There were Black scholars writing papers about why I was wasting my time. Even Blacks said a Black couldn’t win.”

 

Twenty years after his second run for president, the first Black president, Barack Obama, saluted Jackson for making his victory possible. Obama celebrated in Chicago, also home to Jackson.

 

“It was a big moment in history,” Jackson told the Guardian, 12 years later. In an interview with NPR, Jackson said: “I cried because I thought about those who made it possible who were not there … People who paid a real price: Ralph Abernathy, Dr King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, those who fought like hell [at the Democratic national convention] in Atlantic City in 64, those in the movement in the south.”

 

During the Covid pandemic, Jackson campaigned against disparities in care and outcomes, asking: “After 400 years of slavery, segregation and discrimination, why would anybody be shocked that African Americans are dying disproportionately from the coronavirus?”

 

He also said all past presidents had failed to “end the virus of white superiority and fix the multifaceted issues confronting African Americans”.

 

Born on 8 October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson became involved in politics at an early age as he navigated the segregated south. He was elected class president at the all-Black Sterling high school, where he also excelled in athletics. In 1959, he received a football scholarship to the University of Illinois. The Chicago White Sox offered the young Jackson a spot on their baseball team, but he decided to focus on his education instead.

 

During winter break his freshman year of college, Jackson returned home to Greenville and tried to obtain a book needed for his studies from the white-only Greenville public library, but he was turned away. The experience stayed with him. A few months later on 16 July 1960, Jackson and seven Black high school students entered the Greenville library for a peaceful protest. After browsing the library and reading books, the group later known as the Greenville Eight were arrested for disorderly conduct and later released on a $30 bond. A judge eventually ruled that they had the right to use the publicly funded institution, and the Greenville library system became integrated in September 1960.

 

Jackson did not return to the University of Illinois after his first year, and instead transferred to the historically Black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, where he played football as a quarterback, was the national officer for the Black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, and was elected the student body president. While earning a sociology degree, he also continued his activism by participating in sit-ins at restaurants in Greensboro.

 

“My leadership skills came from the athletic arena,” Jackson told the Washington Post in 1984. “In many ways, they were developed from playing quarterback. Assessing defenses; motivating your own team. When the game starts, you use what you’ve got – and don’t cry about what you don’t have. You run to your strength. You also practice to win.”

 

During college, Jackson met his future wife Jacqueline, whom he married in 1962 and later had five children with – Santita, Jesse Jr, Jonathan Luther, Yusef DuBois, and Jacqueline Jr. He would later go on to have a sixth child, Ashley, during an extramarital affair with Karin Stanford in the early 2000s.

 

Jackson first met King, who would become his mentor, at an airport in Atlanta in the early 1960s. King had followed Jackson’s student activism from afar for several years.

 

In 1964, Jackson enrolled at the Chicago Theological Seminary, as he continued to be involved in the civil rights movement. Jackson travelled with his classmates to Selma, Alabama, to join the movement after he watched news footage of Bloody Sunday, where nonviolent civil rights marchers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, were then beaten by law enforcement officers. Impressed by Jackson’s leadership at Selma, King offered him a position with the civil rights group that he co-founded, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

 

After a couple of years, Jackson put his seminary studies on hold to focus on SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket, an economic justice program that harnessed the power of Black churches by calling on ministers to pressure companies to employ more Black people through negotiations and boycotts. In 1967, Jackson became Operation Breadbasket’s national director, and was ordained as a minister a year later.

 

“We knew he was going to do a good job,” King said at an Operation Breadbasket meeting in 1968, “but he’s done better than a good job.”

 

Tragedy struck soon after Jackson gained a leadership position at SCLC. On 4 April 1968, Jackson witnessed King’s assassination from below the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

The experience stayed with Jackson for the rest of his life. “Every time I think about it, it’s like pulling a scab off a sore,” he told the Guardian in 2018. “It’s a hurtful, painful thought: that a man of love is killed by hate; that a man of peace should be killed by violence; a man who cared is killed by the careless.”

 

Following King’s death, Jackson continued to work for SCLC until 1971, when he created his own organization to improve Black people’s economic conditions, People United to Save Humanity (Push). The organization hosted reading programs for Black youth and helped them find jobs, and also encouraged corporations to hire more Black managers and executives.

 

In 1984, Jackson ran as a Democratic candidate for president, becoming the second Black person to launch a nationwide campaign following Shirley Chisholm more than a decade earlier.

 

“Tonight we come together bound by our faith in a mighty God, with genuine respect and love for our country, and inheriting the legacy of a great party, the Democratic party, which is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just, and peaceful course,” Jackson told an audience at the 1984 Democratic national convention in San Francisco, California.

 

“This is not a perfect party. We’re not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.” He lost the Democratic nomination to former vice-president Walter Mondale, with the incumbent Republican president Ronald Reagan ultimately winning the election.

 

After his first presidential run, Jackson created the National Rainbow Coalition to push for voting rights and social programs. In the mid-1990s, Jackson merged his two organizations together to form the multiracial group Rainbow Push Coalition, which focuses on educational and economic equality. Throughout the years, the coalition has paid more than $6m in college scholarships, and gave financial assistance to more than 4,000 families facing foreclosures so that they could save their homes, according to their website.

 

Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination for president a second time in 1988, performing strongly but losing out to Michael Dukakis, the Massachusetts governor, who was beaten heavily in the general election by George HW Bush.

 

In 2000, the then president, Bill Clinton, awarded Jackson the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his decades of work focused on increasing opportunities for people of color.

 

Jackson took King’s work forward, staying to the fore in the worldwide civil rights movement through a tumultuous half-century of American history, through to the election of Donald Trump and the rise of Black Lives Matter.

 

“Dr King believed in multiracial, multicultural coalitions of conscience, not ethnic nationalism,” Jackson said in 2018. “He felt nationalism – whether Black, white or brown – was narrowly conceived, given our global challenges. So having a multiracial setting said much about his vision of America and the world, what America should stand for as well as the world.

 

“The arc of the moral universe is long and it bends towards justice, but you have to pull it to bend. It doesn’t bend automatically. Dr King used to remind us that every time the movement has a tailwind and goes forward, there are headwinds.

 

“Those who oppose change in some sense were re-energised by the Trump demagoguery. Dr King would have been disappointed by his victory but he would have been prepared for it psychologically. He would have said: ‘We must not surrender our spirits. We must use this not to surrender but fortify our faith and fight back.’”

 

This article was amended on 16 February 2026 because an earlier version incorrectly suggested that the first Selma march, known as Bloody Sunday, was led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

17368: Additional Thoughts On Omnicom 4Q WTF BS.

 

MediaPost reported on the Omnicom 4Q report featuring an upcoming $2.5B Fire Sale, whereby the White holding company will unload non-strategic and underperforming assets.

 

The report sparked additional thoughts from this blog’s editorial board.

 

Wonder if any non-White assets—e.g., minority-owned enterprises like Spike DDB or alma—will be deemed non-strategic or underperforming.

 

What is the impact on psychological safety and morale as Omnicom drones wait to learn if they are part of non-strategic or underperforming assets—and experience their ultimate employment fates?

 

Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren is changing his honorary title from Pioneer of Diversity to Pioneer of Divestiture.

 

Omnicom To Sell $2.5B In ‘Non-Strategic,’ Underperforming Assets

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Omnicom issued its fourth quarter and full-year results late Wednesday without providing formal organic growth figures or its outlook for 2026.  

 

The firm said there would be more to come on that at an investor day event in March, although it’s likely that the firm will not be issuing formal organic growth estimates — seen by many as a key metric of ad industry health — throughout 2026. Informal estimates on earnings calls are more likely. 

 

One reason: Planning for this year is not yet complete because executives have been busy wrapping up the Interpublic Group merger and integrating its businesses into the company. 

 

On an earnings call, CFO Phil Angelastro estimated that fourth-quarter organic growth was about 4% for the businesses that the firm intends to hang on to for the long term. 

 

Not included in that growth estimate are businesses that Omnicom is planning to dispose of — about $2.5 billion (revenue) worth of businesses in the combined portfolio.

 

It also plans to reduce its ownership to minority stakes in another $700 million worth of businesses, mostly in smaller markets. The latter actions are more about “simplicity issues,” than underperformance, Angelastro said.  

 

The outright sales are related to both non-strategic and underperforming assets. The firm has already sold about $800 million of that total, including experiential marketing firm Jack Morton. 

 

The integration of the company’s major platforms — including Omni, IPG Interact, Flywheel and Acxiom ID — are expected to be completed by the end of the current quarter.  

 

Omnicom’s total full-year revenue was $17.3 billion — versus about $15.7 billion in 2024.

 

The 2025 total includes 12 months of Omnicom revenue and one month of IPG revenue (the merger closed on November 26, 2025).

 

A more detailed pro forma comparison of the numbers will be provided in the firm’s 10K annual report to be filed with the SEC in the coming weeks. 

 

The pro forma analysis will provide numbers that assume the merger was closed in January of 2024 to provide investors with a more apples-to-apples comparison of Omnicom’s performance over the past year. 

 

On the conference call, CEO John Wren said the company has now determined that it can double the size of achieved synergies to $1.5 billion over the next 30 months. About $900 million in synergies will be achieved in 2026. 

 

About $1 billion of the total synergies will be labor-related, including eliminating duplicative roles, offshoring and automation. The remainder will come from operational efficiencies and real estate consolidations.  

 

In Q4 the company posted $5.5 billion in revenue and an operating loss of $1 billion, due mostly to merger-related costs. 

 

The company is also launching a $5 billion share repurchase program. Company shares were up more than 3% today and another 2.6% in after-hours trading following the earnings release. 

 

Wren said media operations continued to be a standout performer in 2025. He estimated that media and related components (precision marketing and commerce) would account for a “mid-fifties” percentage of the company’s revenue going forward. 

 

When pressed about the impact of AI on jobs, Wren acknowledged that the technology will help cut some positions but that the bigger impact is enabling employees to be more productive.  

 

Company Chief Technology Officer Paolo Yuvienco elaborated that creative teams that used to present three concepts to a client can now present 25 to 50 concepts to that client in the same amount of time. “It’s about the ability to do more with a higher degree of confidence,” he said.

17367: BHM 2026—Canada.

As mentioned in a previous post, Canada celebrates Black History Month in February too.

 

The Canadian 2026 BHM theme reads, “30 Years of Black History Month: Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations—From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries.”

 

Explore more at the Government of Canada website, which includes a digital toolkit to help promote BHM content and activities.