• by December 22, 2004

SIX DEGREES OF BOB BRENNAN -It's been a while since we checked the Bob Brennan rumor mill, but seeing as it's almost a new year, we were curious about the latest buzz on Brennan's next-new-job prospect. Last we heard, Brennan was up for running a joint venture that would have combined Havas' and Interpublic's media operations. But it seems talk of that venture - which would have combined the media clout of Havas' MPG with Interpublic's Initiative Media, Universal McCann and FCB Media units - was a bit premature. The latest rumor has Brennan headed back to his home town in the Big Apple to take a senior position at WPP Group, presumably as the operations guy for the burgeoning Group M media empire, reporting to Irwin Gotlieb. Under that scenario, we guess, WPP figures Gotlieb might actually retire some day and that they need to begin looking outside for a candidates, though they clearly have plenty of talent within Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia, not to mention soon-to-be-acquired MediaCom.

One thing that is clear is that there is no dearth of possibilities for Brennan, the former Leo Burnett media department wunderkind, who along with Jack Klues formed Starcom, which later merged with MediaVest to form what many believe to be the alpha media shop. Or as guru Erwin Ephron calls it, "the closest thing to the media agency of the future."

Brennan was such a strong media exec, in fact, that parent Leo Burnett (now Publicis) did the only logical thing for an advertising holding company. They took him out of media and made him head of Leo Burnett USA. That made him one of the few media department guys to make it to the top of Madison Avenue's org chart and one of the Riff's personal heroes. But for reasons that were never made fully clear, but which likely had to do with company politics, Brennan was unceremoniously discharged from Burnett about a year-and-a-half ago and has maintained a relatively low profile, showing up at occasional industry panel discussions, dabbling in some consulting work, and presumably biding his time while his non-compete period ran out. So naturally, the speculation is that Brennan is going to run some kind of new, super media buying operation.

But given another recent trend, the reemergence of the full-service agency media department (note the success of Fallon's and Deutsch's media operations, and the fact that FCB just recreated the worldwide media director's post), maybe Brennan should return home to Burnett, but this time as media director.