Draft FCB move smart and brave.(Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. acquires)

Advertising Age, June, 2006

Interpublic hasn't made many good decisions in the last decade, and it has made a few stinkers, but its latest move to marry Draft and FCB shows the kind of management courage and creativity that has so often seemed to be lacking at the holding company and, in fact, in the industry in general.

The seeds of agency-altering ideas-such as merging a direct agency and an ad shop to create a one-stop shop-usually fall on the barren ground of fear: fear that a large client won't like the restructure or will spot a conflict that it creates; fear that some account baron will get upset and end up departing; or just plain and simple fear of change.

Interpublic's own failure to properly address Lowe's issues over the last few years has been a case in point. In...

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