A wonderful song & slideshow by L. McDuff about the Madison Avenue downturn.

Lyrics:
A not so long time ago, I can still remember
How the big three used to give you reach
If you splurged on a TV spot
Your brand could really gain a lot
At least that’s what they told you in the speech
But the digital revolution felt like thunder
With every paper that went under
Bad news on the blogs
The industry’s gone to the dogs
I can’t remember if I cried
When Viacom’s lawsuit was denied
But something touched me deep inside
The year the media died

So bye bye those big upfront buys
Pitched my client who was pliant
But the pitch didn’t fly
And old ad boys were drinking martinis dry
Singing “tech has taken us for a ride”
“Algorithms got me cross-eyed”

Did you get the I/O form?
And can you tell me which ads performed
Wanamaker asks you so
Do you believe in ROI?
Can click through keep your eCPMs high?
And can you teach me how to target real fine?
Well I know that you have low sell through
Cos yield is weak for all the page views
You used the same excuse
That you can’t sell without some schmooze
I was a lonely Mad Ave creative type
With some good ideas and a lot of hype
But I knew the picking was ripe
The year the media died

Now for 10 years we’ve had ad networks
And gone are the bennies and the perks
But that’s not how it used to be
When we sold ads in the magazine
By taking the buyers out for 18
And the budgets are now just so damn lead
And while Warner Bros was looking down
Google monetized their content all around
The search bar had the might
To drive traffic to any site
Sir Martin claimed he knew social
But this inventory he couldn’t sell
That’s not the story he would tell
The year the media died

Helter skelter, things are really strange
The prices are set on an exchange
Sub dollar CPMs and falling fast
The cable net claimed strong demo appeal
The producer tried for a sponsor deal
But the writers knew the talent wouldn’t last
Now for a while there were some sweet deals
The proceeds paid for some fancy wheels
We all tried to sell our firms
Oh but we didnt’t get the terms
The buyers began to show some doubt
The offer contained a big earn-out
I seem to recall who had the clout
The year the media died

Oh and there we were all in one place
Our business models lost in space
With no money left to start again
So come on: Jeff be nimble, Brian be quick
Neither guy is earning much from the click
Cos search is no way to capture brand spend
As I watched users generate
Without ad support to carry the weight
No content like MTV

Could break consumers’ love of free
As the debt crushed the equity
Companies filed for bankruptcy
I saw Sergy smirking impishly
The year the media died

I asked the man who ran the Times
About turning dollars into digital dimes
But he just frowned and turned away
I went down to the corner store
Where I’d bought the broadsheet years before
But the man there said the paper didn’t pay
And in the homes the ads were skipped
The Kindles charged and the CDs ripped
But not a word was broadcast
The audience no longer amassed
And the three buyers with the biggest fees
Publicis, Omnicom and WPP
The stooed to be brought to their knees
The year the media died