• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 17, 2024

Actually, that question was the first organic result when I entered an "Interpublic" query on the search engine this morning (see above).

The result, which falls just below the holding company's paid Google placement, was the first organic listing under Google's "People also ask" results, making me wonder how many queries have asked that question about the publicly-traded agency holding company, who they are and why they are asking that?

Hard to tell, because when I clicked on the result, it took me to IPG's own boilerplate description (see below). So kudos to IPG's organic optimization team for closing that loop, but it still makes me wonder how and why the query ranks so high?

Even odder, was what I saw next on my Google results page: A link to an "IPG Fraud PSA" on YouTube (screenshot below and embedded video at bottom).

To be fair, I understand Google search results aren't exactly universal, and every user gets different results based on their search history, but I swear I haven't done an open-ended "Interpublic" query in some time, if ever, and I'm just wondering what other people see if they run that query?

In any case, I was also surprised to see that IPG was the subject of a fraud scheme -- at least eight months ago when it posted the YouTube video -- and what has become of it? And why when I clicked on Google's news tab, there is no coverage of it -- zilch?

By the way, I began this query to see what, if anything has been posted since Interpublic announced its own good news Tuesday, that it has received "numerous ESG accolades."

Kudos to IPG, because the news comes a year after the holding company became the first to announce it would “proactively review” prospective energy industry clients before accepting new work.

That said, IPG didn't exactly say anything about what it planned to do with one of the biggest fossil fuel accounts -- ExxonMobil's -- which apparently was grandfathered into its non-ESG roster.

On the other hand, I haven't heard any other holding companies take a similar position vis a vis prospective new energy clients. So there's that.