Suicide followed anonymous jabs

Blog vitriol comes under scrutiny

NEW YORK -- Advertising blogs churn out some of the Web's more scathing, and personal, vitriol. Recently, the bloggers absorbed some body blows of their own.

Visitors to AgencySpy and AdScam, two sharp-tongued blogs written by advertising industry insiders, posted comments blaming the sites for contributing to the suicide late last month of Paul Tilley, 40, the creative director of DDB Chicago.

In so doing, bloggers and their readers added another chapter in a long debate about how, or whether, to manage anonymous posts that seem aimed at shredding a person's reputation.

"We're certainly used to criticism in the agency business," said Nina DiSesa, chairwoman of McCann Erickson Worldwide's New York division, who posted comments on AgencySpy.com in defense of Tilley, whom she called a friend. "But when blogs attack someone personally, without justification, and they do it anonymously, it's just wrong."

Tilley, who oversaw teams that created the "I'm Lovin' It" campaign for McDonald's and the "Dell Dude," among other prominent ads, apparently jumped Feb. 22 from an upper floor of the Fairmont Chicago hotel. The Cook County medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

Tilley's death occurred several months after news of the suicide in 2006 of Megan Meier, 13, a Missouri girl who took her life after being the target of insults on MySpace.

Gregory K. Brown, a specialist on suicide at the University of Pennsylvania, said public humiliation could play a role in suicide because "hopelessness is often a major risk factor, and if you've been publicly humiliated and your reputation has been tarnished forever, you could see how someone could become hopeless."

Before his death, Tilley had come under particularly harsh criticism on the blogs. AgencySpy, which is written by an anonymous advertising industry employee, was perhaps the most biting.

In a posting Feb. 19, the site quoted excerpts from an internal e-mail message Tilley had sent to subordinates. "Too many of you are only doing good work. And some of you are doing work that simply isn't good enough," he had written.

AgencySpy wrote that Tilley "needs to go back to management 101," adding, "At one point, Paul thought he could make it as a game show host. Doesn't one need to be charming for that?"

The site then published 12 comments peppered with personal insults aimed at Tilley -- among them an insult signed by George Parker, author of the blog AdScam.

A public figure

After Tilley's death was reported, comments beneath the AgencySpy blog posting turned sharply to recriminations from people identifying themselves as friends, colleagues or relatives of the DDB executive. "You should all be ashamed. Because you contributed to this," said a message from someone who signed as LSA.

A similar post on AdScam said, "I knew him. And I know that the vile attacks inflicted on him by you and others tortured his soul. He told me so."

AgencySpy's writer, who identified herself as a 29-year-old woman, agreed to answer e-mail questions but otherwise guarded her anonymity. She said Tilley, because of his industry leadership post, was a public figure.

"Perhaps the definition has changed as information has become more easily accessible," she said. "This new medium has different rules and that may include the scope of who [is] and who isn't in the public eye. Some people subscribe to these new notions and some don't.

"I'm saddened by Paul Tilley's death, but I do not feel that my blog postings contributed to the events that occurred."

'Ethics in blogs?'

AgencySpy is owned by Mediabistro.com, which was bought last year by Jupitermedia, an Internet research company.

After the death, several posters objected generally to the insults on AdScam and AgencySpy. One commentator, who identified himself as Michael, wrote, "Are there ethics in blogs? Should people have the right to publicly and anonymously criticize and attack the private lives of private people simply for entertainment? This guy wasn't a politician or a movie star -- he didn't opportunistically cast himself into the public domain. He just made commercials."

AgencySpy's writer said the strong reactions had not changed her view on anonymity in posts, which she said "allows for more compelling, insider content" because the writers need not fear retribution. She said she removes "threatening or highly explosive, such as racist, remarks."

Laurel Touby, Mediabistro's senior vice president and founder, said she did not think the remarks by the AgencySpy writer "were that bad."

She said, though, that the anonymous comments from others had given her reason to reconsider the company's posting policies, and perhaps require those who "say something nasty" to include their names. But she added that screening for inappropriate content and verifying identities would be too much work for a small company.

"We don't have copy editors," she said.