 |
We’re No. 2! Hats off to Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun for powering his French analytics/ad/PR firm past Omnicom Group to become the second largest communications combine.
Publicis chalked up a 10 percent increase in Q1 revenues to $3.7B, following two years of double-digit growth. “Putting this performance in perspective, the Groupe has actually changed dimension in recent years, rising to the number 2 position in the industry in terms of revenue,” said Sadoun in taking a bow.
Meanwhile, Omnicom CEO John Wren posted a measly one percent growth in the quarter to $3.4M.
Both Sadoun and Wren project three percent to five percent organic growth for the year. But the swaggering Frenchman expects growth in the upper range of the projection. Touché!
For Sadoun, it’s on to toppling Mark Read’s WPP from the top of the heap.
You got to hand it to the PR gang at Fox News Media. The department has mastered the art of snarkiness.
After agreeing to a last-minute record $787.7M settlement to its defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems, what other PR department would issue this flight from reality: “This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.” Walter Cronkite is spinning in his grave.
Dominion sued Fox for $1.6B. I can’t wait to see the PR statement that Fox puts out following conclusion of its next legal battle.
Smartmatic is suing Fox for $2.7B. A lawyer for that voting machine company said it won’t accept any settlement smaller than $787.7M and it wants an apology.
Fox is ready to defend itself at the trial that will probably begin in 2025.
“As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on its face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms,” the company said in a statement.
The trial will show what party is disconnected from reality.
It’s too bad Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis is dull as dishwater on the campaign trail.
Or that he thinks that he can ride a one-trick “war on corporate wokism” pony up Pennsylvania Ave and into the White House.
His war on wokism is not exactly a stirring call to battle.
A survey by PA firm RokkSolutions found that a little more than half (52 percent) say companies have gone overboard on the woke front.
Conversely, more than three quarters (76 percent) of respondents believe companies should be held accountable for making positive impact on the communities in which they operate.
Those findings present a pretty mixed bag.
While DeSantis wastes time obsessing over Mickey Mouse, he is being ridiculed 24/7 by his former mentor turned chief tormentor Donald Trump.
That's because Trump knows he's toast against his fellow Florida Man.
DeSantis clobbers Trump by a 52 percent to 38 percent margin in a head-to-head GOP primary battle, according to a Wall Street Journal/Impact Research poll.
Trump handily beats DeSantis by 48 percent to 24 percent if presidential wannabes Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Sununu, Chris Christie, Tim Scott and Glenn Youngkin are tossed into the mix.
In a contest with president Joe Biden, Trump loses 48 percent to 45 percent, but DeSantis reverses those numbers and becomes the next president.
Biden plans to announce his re-election bid on April 26. Seventy-three percent of Americans don’t want him to do so, according to an AP/NORC poll. Seventy percent of Americans don’t want Trump to run either.
Outside the Magic Kingdom, there’s an opening for DeSantis if he's less than a bully and smarty pants know-it-all.
Thank you for your service…. Dan Edelman on April 20 was posthumously inducted as a distinguished member of the psychological operations regiment at the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at School at Fort Bragg.
In his recommendation letter, COL (R) Curtis Boyd wrote that Edelman’s service “during a time of war proved invaluable to not only his comrades in arms but also formed a critical and credible basis for not only the military profession of psychological operations but also set the foundation for PR professionals worldwide.”
Dan's PSYOP service was the perfect training ground for launching what has become the world's No. 1 PR firm.
Donald Trump is 100 percent correct that he has lousy PR but that's only because his policies stink and are hurting Americans... Will billionaires or civil society groups shape the future of AI regulations?... "Evidence in an Age of Doubt" is the timely theme of this year's investigative film festival put on by the 100Reporters group. 
WPP CEO Cindy Rose works to manage shareholder expectations ahead of the Oct. 29 release of financials. Don't expect a miracle turnaround... Kudos to Skydance chief David Ellison for keeping CNN CEO Mark Thompson on the job. Now he has to expend Thompson's contract... Vast majority of Americans want federal government to regulate AI. They obviously don't trust the "super intelligence" president to oversee AI.
Don’t believe what your eyes see and ears hear is the mantra of Donald Trump who claims his propaganda advertising designed to boost his fragile ego are “clearly not campaign ads”... Democratic National Committee steps up outreach to Jewish Americans as antisemitism rises and traditional support for Israel tanks. 
The Trump administration's crackerjack team designed America.gov, which puts all services offered by US agencies under a single AI roof. What could possibly go wrong?... ESG pioneer Starbucks jumps off the sustainability train in favor of corporate cost-cutting... Perception of press freedom plummets to all-time low, according to Gallup survey.
China's president Xi Jinping won the PR battle over Donald Trump as the American groveled before his guest of honor on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews. Trump’s kowtowing to Xi is a sign of both his personal weakness and of America’s decline on the global stage.
