Ogilvy - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Ogilvy is Medium Risk.

Ogilvy is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company elevates merit, excellence, and integrity ahead of race and identity-based policies. Ogilvy occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	High Risk
Employment Protection	Medium Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

The Ogilvy Group received a score of 30 on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group. The company recruits employees based on sexual identity issues. The company discriminates against vendors that do not promote divisive sex and gender policies, indicating it prioritizes sexual issues over merit (1)(2). However, Ogilvy has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (3).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Ogilvy’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company will not donate to non-religious charities unless they embrace controversial sexual identity policies (1)(2). Ogilvy does not publish charitable giving guidelines (3)(4)(5).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Ogilvy does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (1).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

In 2020, Ogilvy compiled and published a list of “Anti-Racism Resources” that included books such as White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (1). In that same year, the company released a report entitled Justice and Brand Accountability, in which it encouraged other companies to fully buy into the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, including by following and quoting the official BLM movement’s Instagram page on social media (2).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

In 2020, Ogilvy announced that it would match up to $1,000 per employee to any of the 25 organizations supporting racial justice; however, nowhere does the company specify which organizations it included in the giving campaign (1). The company’s parent company, WPP, released a list of organizations it supported through a similar matching campaign at the same time, although it is unclear whether Ogilvy used the same list (2). Ogilvy is a Legacy Member of Out Leadership, a global network of LGBT+ business leaders from major companies that seeks to advance LGBTQ+ representation in corporate leadership and integrate LGBTQ+ priorities into workplace strategies. The first LGBTQ+ B-Corporation, Out Leadership accomplishes this through convening leadership summits, directing talent initiatives, and providing advisory solutions that emphasize the positive impact of LGBT+ inclusion for business (3)(4)(5)(6). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of Ogilvy using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (7).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

Ogilvy does not operate a PAC or engage in lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).