Coca-Cola And Pepsi Are Still Silent About Their Ad Agencies' Huge New Conflict Of Interest

Yesterday, we broke down the biggest conflicts of interest that exist under the newly minted Publicis Omnicom Groupe — a merger of the former second and third largest advertising holding companies in the world.

The biggest conflict, of course, is that rivals Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. will now be housed under the same roof.

While there has been a lot of speculation since rumors of the merger began circulating last Friday, the two cola brands still have yet to release any reaction to the partnership, positive or negative.

Bloomberg asked both companies to address the issue late yesterday. Neither could muster anything to say about it:

Jeff Dahncke, a spokesman for Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo, declined to comment on the Publicis deal. Kent Landers, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Omnicom CEO John Wren told analysts on Monday morning, and reporters in Paris on Sunday, that conflicts would not be a problem: "I spoke to all our significant clients. There's nothing significant to speak of. The ones I've spoken to simply congratulated us."

Since the scale of the company will lead to better online/print/television buy rates and the ad world believes in what are known as "Chinese walls" that bar agencies from discussing client strategies in-house, Coke and Pepsi might be OK with the new development.

The lack of an official word for future plans doesn't mean anything, of course. But it doesn't mean anything good, either.