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.”
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.