Global advertising groups pledge support for staff in Israel

Ogilvy, McCann, Havas, Leo Burnett, Dentsu and TBWA all have offices in Tel Aviv, which is a major hub for the tech and advertising sector in the region. Buildings in the city were struck by Hamas rockets on Saturday night, according to Al Jazeera, while many flights in and out of the local airport have been suspended.

Publicis Groupe has over 440 staff in Israel - making it the largest ad agency employer in the market - mostly employed at Leo Burnett’s Tel Aviv office, though BBR Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis GNS, Zenith, Starcom and other agency subsidiaries also operate there, working with clients such as Ford, BMW and Samsung.

According to an internal message from global chief executive officer Arthur Sadoun, several staff have already been called up to active military duty. The company has pledged support for staff in the country as the situation develops.

Japanese holding company Dentsu meanwhile employs 50 people in Tel Aviv. According to the company, it was providing “focused support” for staff in the city. A spokesperson for the firm told The Drum: “In these challenging times, as a global business we will continue to prioritize the safety of our people. In Israel, we have employees based predominantly in Tel Aviv and centrally in Israel. At this time, all our Dentsu people and their families in Israel are accounted for. We are in close contact with our Dentsu team and will continue to provide ongoing focused support for our people over this time.”

A spokesperson later told The Drum that ’focused support’ meant personal counselling, taking work projects off the desks of Israeli staffers to ease the strain, and helping staff that want to leave the country transfer to offices in other markets.

Omnicom network TBWA operates an office in the city through a minority interest in a local agency. According to a spokesperson for Omnicom, a staffer at TBWA\Tel Aviv was killed at the Supernova music festival. “At this point, we are focused on making sure our employees who are visiting the region are safe and helping with evacuations (if they need it),” the spokesperson said.

Ben Sever, co-CEO and chief creative officer of Havas Tel Aviv, told The Drum that the agency’s 60 employees were safe and in contact with each other. “Since Saturday morning, the people of Israel have been living through a heartbreaking nightmare. Over 800 lives have been lost in a terrible act of violence, and more than 150 people, including children, women, and the elderly, have been kidnapped. Entire families with innocent children have faced unimaginable horrors.

“My own family and I are safe. We are dealing with missile attacks, but we have a shelter that keeps us safe. The kids are alarmed but we will be OK. I personally know people who were not as fortunate or who barely escaped these tragic events.”

Philippe Krakowsky, chief executive officer of Interpublic Group (IPG), told investors on its third quarter earnings call of “our collective shock and grief in response to the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Israel and their aftermath,“ adding that IPG staff were also being called up by the IDF.

“Thankfully, our colleagues in Israel are safely accounted for, though many are being called into service. We are also clearly in the midst of a humanitarian crisis in the region. Our thoughts go out to all innocent lives that have been impacted by violence, and those who remain in harm’s way.“ The business expects significant disruption to its activities in the region, which account for roughly 1% of IPG turnover.

He said: “When you look at the balance of this year, the geopolitical situation in the Middle East adds a degree of uncertainty to our business. Our operations in Israel include the full range of creative, marketing services and media offerings and represent about one percent of total IPG global revenue. As you’d expect, economic activity in the country is at a standstill, which has already begun to have an impact, during what it is seasonally the business’s largest quarter. The developing geopolitical crisis is, of course, foremost a human concern and our top priority is to do what we can to support our colleagues in the region.”

Outside of advertising, global companies are suspending operations in the region. Retailers, including H&M and Inditex SA – the owner of Zara, which has 84 outlets in Israel – have temporarily closed their stores. In addition to airlines grounding flights, travel firms, including Carnival Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, have redirected routes for October.

Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of chips used for AI and computer graphics, has canceled a conference it was scheduled to host in Tel Aviv next week.

This article was last updated 27 October.