• by Joe Mandese , July 13, 2022

If we've learned anything from the past half dozen years it's that "truth" can be a very subjective term, especially when applied to the media business. But when I conducted an informal poll of both in-house and outside communications (public relations) executives representing some of the biggest publicly traded and independent agencies in the world, most of them were surprised by the question I was asking them:

"Do ad agencies have to honor their own news embargoes?"

Most simply said that's a given, and when I explained that one of their peers has been asking journalists to honor embargoed news, but doling it out as an exclusive to one publication, they seemed aghast.

Only one communications exec -- the one from the agency repeatedly breaking its own embargoes -- said that was permissible.

I promised I'd keep the respondents' identities anonymous, but I can tell you at least two of the communications I polled also worked in the same agency holding company as the one that said it was okay for them to break their own embargo.

"If I found out someone was about to publish the news ahead of you, I’d call/text to let you know and tell you to publish ASAP," one of them said.

"No bueno if the source breaks their end of the bargain," said another who used to work in-house at the holding company, but is now an independent, adding: "And without knowing further details, I *might* say that source would now be considered a persona non grata."

I could go on citing the verbatims I received from the agency communications executives, but in addition to being surprised that I'd ask about the rules obligating a source to honor their own embargo, they all emphasized that communications is about trusted relationships, and that once trust is broken, it's hard to get back.

If you're an agency communications executive who I did not reach and have something to add about this -- even if it's a contrarian point of view -- please let me know by commenting here (unlikely) or reach out to me at joe@mediapost.com and I will keep it confidential. You can trust me on that.