The Return of (AgencySpy) Hate

By Matt Van Hoven 

Hate! It’s such a fun, lovely word (did I spell it right?), and in context of blogging it’s just part of the deal. Recently I went to Chicago and spoke with a number of ad folks who seemed to agree there’s a lack of agency coverage. So we hired Kaitlin Madden, essentially because your peers told us to.

The young Madden has been getting the same response I did when I started 2 years ago &#151 hateful snide remarks from anonymous, insignificant people too cowardly to put their name behind their words. Such negative feedback means she’s already doing her job, and she hasn’t even scooped a story yet! So, why that hate, Chicago? Ah yes, you must be scared.


Hate comes with the territory kids, and at the end of the day it means the difference between your knowing what’s really happening and what the various powers want you to think is happening. So it’s worth it. No one likes being exposed of their wrongs, but someone’s got to do it. Lord knows others don’t, or won’t.

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So our mission, which is renewed of late thanks in part to Chicago, is to tell you as much of the truth as we can get our dirty little hands on (might as well own the dirty blogger brand, right?). The deal is, no one’s getting rich doing this, but even if we were New York’s tax structure would find a way to rid us of it. Rest assured, all we want to do is tell you the stories that make this business go round.

And we can tell that you have an insatiable hunger for it.

Many of the people who live in Chicago will not like our devotion, the same way parts of New York don’t. It seems there is a perception that we are out to malign people &#151 which I can tell you is not the case. But we’re bad for business because people trust us to tell you the bad things no one else will tell you.

Sometimes in the process of shining a light on things, you uncover the unexpected. Chicago-advertising’s lack of coverage, unwillingness to let people read our site and dearth of business tells us something is going on that deserves our attention. Madden’s job won’t be easy, but it will be worthwhile. She’ll have to take some hate &#151 from anonymous nobodies who will tear at her will. It’s part of the job, and I can tell you it’s not fun. It is, however, what we do &#151 and life willing, we’ll do it as long as we can.

Next stop: London or LA?

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