“Slow news day” doesn’t do justice to how slim the news pickings are right now, Dear Reader. We’re reduced to leading off with “sign of the times” news that WPP is merging its fabled Wunderman and J. Walter Thompson agencies into uncreatively-named Wunderman Thompson, which will be “distinctively positioned” as a provider of “end-to-end solutions – through creative, data, commerce, consulting and technology services – at a global scale.” Such combinations have been an industry trend for years. Healthy, yes. Distinctive, not so much.

A significant minority of shoppers care less about deals than the corporate values of their merchants. Publicity agency MWWPR christened this group “CorpSumers” last year and estimates they are 35% of the U.S. population.  A recent survey found that 75% of the group say they’ll select holiday gifts based on whether they feel the brand or retailer has values similar to their own.  You could also argue this means that three-quarters of shoppers don’t care about corporate values. For an extended discussion, see this blog post at Customer Experience Matrix.

Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation.  The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.