Stuart Elliot writing in NY Times: Madison Avenue is responding to the planned acquisition of Gillette by Procter & Gamble with a mix of anxiety and eagerness.
There is anxiety because the deal will turn Procter, the world’s largest advertiser, into the biggest marketer of consumer products, with total sales at $60 billion a year, overtaking its longtime rival, Unilever. Procter’s growing clout is being regarded warily because the company has long been known as a tough customer that demands the best – and more – from its many advertising, media and promotional agencies.
“Procter wants to win in every category it’s in,” a senior executive at an agency said Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Procter dislikes outsiders talking about its business to reporters. “It never enters a category just to compete.”
Discover more from Adpulp
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
You think THIS merger is bad, wait until SBC completes its merger of AT&T. Then watch your phone service go absolutely to hell, with little or no recourse. I finally had to take my bait-and-switch complaint to the Illinois Atty General’s Consumer Affairs Dept once to get an internet sign-up deal completed AS SOLD to me by SBC in Chicago. Four days after they sold me the service, they e-mailed me they were raising the price. When I complained that that wasn’t the deal I bought, no one would own up to it, or admit that was what happened. Even the Chairman of the Board, who I also wrote, ignored me. The Attorney General’s office letterhead was more effective, as I got the price reversed a few months later. But I wonder why I had to go to such lengths in dealing with this monopoly? Simple. It is a monopoly.