In a previous era, advertising agencies and their clients were joined at the hip. Now, some of the most powerful entities on Madison Avenue are grappling with serious fractures.

A damning report issued last week by one of the ad industry’s most influential trade organizations alleged that many of the firms that allocate billions of dollars on behalf of blue-chip marketers like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Apple are being influenced in how they spend that ad cash — and not always by the interests of their clients. A seven-month probe by the Assn. of National Advertisers found what the group called pervasive evidence that media buying firms — the companies that negotiate the placement of commercials everywhere from ABC to YouTube — are getting kickbacks in the form of cash or advertising inventory in exchange for earmarking more of their clients’ money for a particular media outlet.

Read the full Variety article here.