Thursday, May 11, 2017

13675: Commenting On AgencySpy.

Campaign presented a report titled, “9 anonymous comments about the death of AgencySpy anonymity,” detailing the decision to alter the commenting process at the blog. The trade publication was technically correct in noting “the death of AgencySpy anonymity” versus the death of the blog itself, which arguably started happening around 2008 as Mediabistro handed the editorial reins to mild-mannered morons like Matt Van Hoven and Kiran Aditham. Why, it got to the point where any available monkey could land an editor position. The next milestone spin in the death spiral involved AgencySpy being purchased in 2014 by Adweek’s parent company, leading to more devolution, dysfunction and demoralization.

The original AgencySpy USP was to provide a forum for commentary—the blog was fueled by user-generated content—with the actual posts essentially posing topics for discussion. It was a rant fest, where advertising people could call out bad behavior, vent about the demise of integrity in the field or just rip the industry’s poseurs and douchebags. AgencySpy hosted a fair amount of diversity-related debates, and the anonymity factor allowed the truly ignorant to freely express their conscious bias. Critics whined and former McCann Chairman Nina DiSesa even attributed a suicide to AgencySpy contributors—which might have been one of the most outrageous comments to ever appear at the blog.

But the party is officially over at AgencySpy. All that remains is for someone to call time of death.

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