The FTC has approved a major merger between Omnicom and IPG but required both advertising giants to end all coordination that discriminates against political viewpoints. This deal marks a turning point for free speech and conservative media outlets long excluded from ad revenue.
Key Facts:
- Omnicom and IPG’s $13.5 billion merger creates the world’s largest advertising firm.
- FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson secured an agreement that bars future coordination based on political viewpoints.
- The firms must cooperate with ongoing investigations into past censorship and submit annual compliance reports.
- GARM, a now-defunct ad coalition, had been caught steering ad dollars away from right-leaning outlets like The Daily Wire.
- Congress and the FTC are continuing investigations into broader industry collusion against political content.
The Rest of The Story:
Omnicom and IPG, two of the largest advertising agencies in the world, have received approval from the FTC to merge, forming the industry’s biggest firm.
However, the approval comes with serious strings attached.
The firms agreed to halt all coordination related to political viewpoint discrimination and to submit to strict compliance rules under federal oversight.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson highlighted the dangers of past ad industry collusion, singling out the now-disbanded GARM coalition for using its power to financially choke conservative publishers.
“GARM aimed to destroy publishers of content of which they disapproved,” Ferguson said.
The agreement not only ends such practices for the newly merged company but also mandates full cooperation with the FTC in investigating past censorship efforts.
The consent decree includes ongoing oversight for five years and immediate reporting requirements should concerns arise.
The FTC also called on other publishers to report any suspected censorship, reinforcing its focus on defending viewpoint diversity in the ad marketplace.
MASSIVE NEWS: Trump's FTC just made a deal with the world's largest ad firms that it believes is a nail in the coffin for collusion against conservatives.
To convince the FTC not to stop a merger, the two ad giants are making big promises to make sure GARM never happens again. pic.twitter.com/YkmXnulKgS
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 23, 2025
Commentary:
This decision is a watershed moment for publishers who have been quietly blacklisted for years under the guise of “brand safety” and misinformation monitoring.
Conservative outlets, in particular, have borne the brunt of viewpoint discrimination, often being labeled as unsafe or conspiratorial by powerful ad firms acting in concert.
The FTC’s enforcement action finally acknowledges what many have suspected: a systematic effort to deny ad dollars to outlets that challenge establishment narratives.
The Daily Wire’s exclusion and GARM’s internal emails revealed just how far this collusion went, with top industry figures mocking free speech advocates and American constitutional principles.
The merger deal—while creating a dominant advertising powerhouse—also gives conservatives a lifeline.
By ending this collusion and forcing transparency, it opens the door for alternative voices to thrive again in a revenue-driven media space.
Many right-of-center publishers rely on advertising to survive.
Without access to major ad buys, numerous websites went out of business or had to severely scale back during the peak of deplatforming efforts.
Now, there’s hope that the era of quiet blacklists and coordinated ad boycotts is finally coming to an end.
This agreement won’t fix everything overnight, but it sets a new legal standard that could serve as a deterrent to other ad firms considering similar viewpoint-based discrimination.
It also sends a message that political censorship through economic pressure isn’t just unethical—it’s possibly illegal.
And the FTC under the Trump-Vance administration appears serious about enforcing that boundary.
This could be the beginning of a broader transformation in the advertising industry.
If the other four global firms—Publicis, WPP, Dentsu, and Havas—don’t follow suit, they may find themselves next in line for investigation.
The message is clear: using financial pressure to silence political viewpoints won’t go unpunished.
The Bottom Line:
The FTC’s approval of the Omnicom-IPG merger, with powerful conditions attached, signals a strong defense of viewpoint diversity in advertising.
For conservative outlets long marginalized by ad industry collusion, this decision is a major step toward fairness.
With strict oversight and a clear message to the rest of the industry, the path to free-market media competition is starting to reopen.
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