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What began as a regional conflict is now a compounding drag on the advertising industry — not catastrophic, but persistent enough that many CMOs are starting to feel it.

While the economics of war travel slowly — through oil prices, supply chains, corporate margins and people’s wallets — they do travel, and enough time has now passed for the effects to start showing up in the numbers.

WPP’s Middle East revenue fell 12.6% like-for-like in the quarter. Meanwhile Publicis’s MEA business was down 5.1%, with the conflict’s reach extending into Sapient’s U.K.’s operations — enough to put roughly 10% of the consulting firm’s total revenue in the conflict zone. Omnicom didn’t break out specifics but the Middle East and Africa were among its only declining regions. 

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In 2024, college athlete TJ Palma had around 5,000 followers on Instagram and close to 15,000 on TikTok. He amassed a healthy following posting videos of himself playing baseball at University of Tampa and showcasing the daily life as an Airbnb host in Florida. His social media presence drew attention from the Love Island casting department, and in 2025, Palma had a stint on the wildly popular dating show.

“It jumpstarted my social media, and played a huge part in my growth not only as a content creator, but in my property business and in investing in other companies,” Palma told Digiday.

Palma says that, immediately after his time on Love Island, his follower count grew to around 250,000 on Instagram and 500,000 on TikTok. He started posting his real estate content on his main page rather than his secondary account, and told Digiday that he posted every single day after leaving Love Island for several months straight.

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