Cordiant, owner of Bates Worldwide, fell 8.2% to 73.5p as the WorldCom news added to the ad group's woes. Reports this morning suggested investors were set to call for senior management changes and the possible resignation of chief executive Michael Bungey.
Overall, the FTSE 100 slumped as much as 188 points in early trade as news that US communications giant WorldCom had admitted accounting discrepancies of almost $3.8bn (£2.5bn).
Worldcom admitted inflating its profits on paper by improperly reporting expenses. Like Enron, its accountanting firm was also Arthur Andersen, who claim ignorance of the affair.
The news saw the FTSE 100 slip to just below 4,500 points, just 10 points higher than its low of 4,433 on September 21.
After Cordiant, the biggest fallers were Scottish ITV company SMG, down 5.5% to 120.5p, closely followed by Lord Bell's Chime, owner of PR group Bell Pottinger, which was down 5.2% to 209p.
Rival PR-dominated group Incepta, owner of Citigate Dewe Rogerson, dropped 4.6% to 41.5p.
ITV companies Granada and Carlton Communications fell 4.6% and 4.2% respectively. Both companies have already suffered from credit downgrades this week, despite optimistic ad revenue estimates for June, July and August. Granada's shares were at 106p and Carlton's were down to 209p.
Advertising giant WPP Group, which has already taken a bashing on the stock market this week, lost 4.46% to 546p.
The company's shares had begun to recover yesterday after chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell's admission that the advertising sector would continue to look gloomy until next year, which sent its share price tumbling on Monday.
BSkyB fell 3.8% to 616p as its parent News Corporation dropped to under A$10 in Australia for the first time since 1999. Daily Mail & General Trust was down 2.4% to 624p. Rival newspaper group Trinity Mirror was down 2.3% to 417.5p.
The outlook appeared worse in other parts of the world however, as in the US Omnicom plunged 6.8% to $48.77 and, in France, Havas was down 10.5% to €5.46.
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