• by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, May 9, 2014

There really is only one story in town today, so let's cut to it. The stories have moved on from the proposal of the "merger of equals" to the expense of the negotiations to now accounting for why it didn't happen. 

I hate to sound crass, but there is a very simple rule in life and it doesn't matter whether it's the corner chip shop or potentially the largest advertising company in the world. And it is this -- you can only have one cockerel in a barn.

It may sound too simplistic, but wherever you look at failed relationships and doomed businesses, it usually comes down to a clash of personality and ego. Most of all, it comes down to not deciding who's the rooster and who's going to lay the eggs. 

WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell and Nick Waters, chief executive of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia-Pacific, summed it up perfectly. Both were on the sidelines watching their archrivals spending millions in fees and rowing over who gets the corner office, while some clients considered taking their business elsewhere and others did. If you're a big brand using one side of the potential merger, would you really want to work in a conjoined advertising giant that also works on your biggest rival's campaigns?

That was the part I could never quite understand about the merger. The two were so huge that they could only possibly hope to lose business among mega brands who were with them for the very good reason that there was, when they signed up, no conflict of interest. The two coming together would never have been equal to their combined billings because some of those key clients were bound to knock on the door of an agency that would be very grateful to receive their business. At the same time, other mega brands not in either camp would surely be put off asking either to pitch in case the merger happened and then created a conflict.

So the practicalities are that the deal fell apart because of issues over corporate structure, tax, executive roles and so on -- but it was very interesting to hear Le Monde had recently reported that Publicis would be buying Omnicom and its Chief Executive, Maurice Levy, was set on a grander title.

Someone had clearly briefed their capital's daily newspaper and summed up what was at the heart of the problems between New York and Paris and sent Omnicom executives fuming with rage.

The French, who pride themselves on their national emblem of the cockerel, ended up spending millions to find out what they should have known all along. One rooster good. Two roosters bad.