Sheila: I'll never criticize the spelling or grammar of your posts again. Promise.

Now I hope no one could be driven to suicide by cruel blogging. It's like a 15 year old girl killing herself because the popular girls called her fat. Except that actually happens... but teenagers are crazy, so that was a bad example... but one would hope an adult would be able to ignore anonymous assholes. Who knows. It's quite unfortunate no matter what the reasons...

It's February in Chicago people. Looking out my window into the Gloamin' makes me want to jump too.

I agree it's so tragic. Maybe it's a reminder while we are all having fun lambasting people anonymously, it is out there on the net and they can read it and I'm sure it has to hurt.

R.I.P. Paul Tilley

Good news, bloodonmyhands.com is up and running!

Weird. It appears that he was wildly successful. . . Perhaps jealousy is what drove these people to write such hateful comments.

Maybe it's shortsighted of me, but I refuse to believe that negative feedback on a blog would motivate someone to suicide. Granted, it may hurt to hear/read someone's not so positive views on you or your work, but to take it so much to heart to actually kill oneself?

Megan Meier was 14 years old responding to what she felt was unfair attacks on her weight on MySpace. She offed herself. That was sad. But she's also 14.

This guy was not a teenager. If indeed he was driven to suicide by a couple of blog posts, then perhaps he had bigger issues he was dealing with so blaming a blog would be a cop-out by all the people doing so after the fact.

He's not Britney Spears in which we do owe some degree of enabling guilt in loving to watch her fall. And the critics are giving the blog posts far too much credit.

As a person who sits on both sides of the fence, I just feel compelled to say: this is so so heartbreakingly sad.

Obviously, I'm a big advocate of the blogs, but if there's one thing all this bloggetty-blogs stuffs has made me re-think, it's that I'm not so sure people should be allowed to make disparaging remarks/comments anonymously. With this kind of newfound "vocal" power SHOULD come some kind of responsibility. I would think having the courage to stand behind your convictions (whatever they are) should be the least of what's required.

I'm just sayin.

abbe diaz
PX This.

Let all of our comments be benign and constructive going forward. PSYCHE!!! But not really.

An ad exec is dead? This is tragic how?

Anyone who has no qualms about convincing children (idiot adults are on their own) to stuff their faces with food that will kill them is not someone I'll miss...

Fuck him.

The funhouse mirror of comments on blogs do not have that kind of power unless one gives it to them. My blogs have full moderation. I worry about someone flipping me off on the freeway because they have metal at speed to endanger me.

Honestly, can anyone say that the same thing wouldn't have happened 20 years ago after this dude overheard people saying mean things about his campaigns, e.g. at a dinner party?

He worked in a creative field. Criticism is part and parcel of the job. His suicide was absolutely tragic, but blaming the internet makes no more sense than blaming news papers or AdAge magazine.

@The Real JR: He was human being, presumably with feelings, and it's entirely possible that he was affected by what he read. Those who are quick to dismiss this possibility are probably in a little bit of posthumous denial.

@JojoSaysNo: Would you say this to his children? Just wondering.

@The Real JR: Here here. This was a grown man in ADVERTISING, for Christ's sake, where they practically invented snark. He must have had other serious issues.

@JojoSaysNo: Ouch, that's harsh.

@JojoSaysNo: Jesus Christ -- rethink that, please?

@The Real JR: Of course he had bigger issues!! If I ever thought that I contributed in ANY way to something like that my god, I would just feel awful. Yeah ok, maybe I am a Pollyanna from Wyoming so sue me.

@JojoSaysNo: I wouldn't go this far, but will say if he would have spent a little more time smoking the dell dudes stash and chilling out maybe he wouldn't have jumped.

Also, I'm glad he didn't really fuck up other peoples day when he chose to meet his maker. People who jump in front of the Red Line during rush hour piss me off.

Sorry, not rethinking. Enthusiastically making money off of the abusive manipulation of children ain't cool.

@In Other News...: I totally accept that one's natural inclination to reading criticisms from on a site would make one feel some sort of way. And granted, those leaked memos and emails must have come from somewhere in-house in his shop. But my point was that smarting from on-line snark (which in its very definition is often anonymous, spontaneous, not always thought out and often immature) can not be the full blame of his suicide. He was an executive which would imply a certain amount of ambition and his knowing the often cut throat dynamics such a rise to power would dictate. I would feel the blog alone didn't contribute significantly to his death and to instantly attack the site for his death would be unfair and removing personal responsibility from him for his actions.

@The Real JR: That's fair enough. I just don't think any one possible contributing factor should be dismissed out of hand.

Now, if the wife comes out and says "Agency Spy" KILLED MY HUSBAND!!! then we have a slightly different story.

@JojoSaysNo: So again, what would you say to his children?

I see dead ad people thru my tears. R.I.P.

@swizzard:
I think the difference is: at a dinner party, you know who your critics are. In which case, one at least has a chance to determine whether one believes those criticisms have any merit, and whether or not those criticisms are worth addressing.

When one is being denigrated by faceless mobs, of course it's easy to SAY, "oh, just brush it off."
But with that does come a feeling of helplessness, because one can't help but wonder if the thousands (?) of people who have read these criticisms are being just as reasonably dismissive.

When a person likes something, he tells 5 people. When he dislikes something, he tells 50 (and on the interwebs, 5000 ?). Where's the fairness in that?

@The Real JR: "...on-line snark (which in its very definition is often anonymous, spontaneous, not always thought out and often immature)..."

Not a commentary about us, I hope? :-)

And honestly - the folks who read these industry-specific blogs are more than likely (if not most likely) to be in that industry, so their comments, though anonymous, are at the very least learned and incisive. That someone is whispering about your faults and achievements on a blog "anonymously" is not exactly like reading sarcastic remarks from John Q. Citizen who lives in an igloo in the Kalahari and who has no access to the outside world whatsoever.

@chickenjungle: It's like this: the people reading and positng on Jalopnik probably like cars. Io9, sci-fi. Gawker, mass media and the denizens within. And so on and so forth. In essence, these websites become a community of one's peers. And what one's peers think of your work matters very much to you, whether you like it or not. Most of us can handle criticism. A few of us might be driven to, well, you know.

@In Other News...:

more than likely (if not most likely) to be in that industry, so their comments, though anonymous, are at the very least learned and incisive.

Point taken and I agree. It's a smaller sandbox in that case. But then how would this be more different than usual industry gossip? Granted, having it "published" gives it more of a platform. But perhaps one could argue if he could be so sensitive to this form of gossip, couldn't he have been also severely hurt over watercooler innuendo as well? And honestly, who hasn't thought their boss or a high level manager in their firm was a total tool? (not saying he was but from what I've seen on the criticism site, that's basically what they're saying.)

Then again, here I am, outside of this industry with no kind of knowledge of what blog this is or this guy in particular is commenting on his life on yet another blog. I mean, did he really fare criticism more harsh than others in his position has? Did he lose work, contacts or credibility after these posts? I have no clue. Can anyone clarify? Because otherwise this is nothing but armchair attributions and largely uninformed analysis behind a keyboard much like how all this started to begin with.

@JojoSaysNo: Ummmm hello that is what their parents are for no??

@JojoSaysNo: It's not like Tilley was writing catchy slogans for Hardees Strychnine Burgers, he was doing campaigns for places like McDonald's, a small cog in the machine--and really not responsible for, well, anything.

@In Other News...:

Also:

Not a commentary about us, I hope? :-)

Honey, you're talking with someone who excitedly contributed with glee to the infamous Times Square Station baby kicking post of a while back. I felt dirty that day but I've never felt so alive... yes, I'm a sad sonovabitch. Gawker brings that out in me. mua-ha.

@jasonelias: No kidding!! I think JoJo was kidnapped and force fed twinkies as a kid. Nothing but twinkies and kool-aid 24/7 for 3 long months of captivity! My kids hate the advertising machine as much as I do and find it ridiculous.

JOJO, Hate the game not the player!

@The Real JR: Whatever happens, God rest his soul. And oh yeah - that baby is here for his royalties. Should I send her to you? :-)

@jasonelias: Calling McDonald's "a small cog in the machine" is like calling McDonald's a small cog in the machine.

@In Other News...:

Yes, I agree. Best thoughts to his family.

And as for that baby, I totally would not be able to recognize her now without an indented bootprint all up in her grill, so you'll totally have to point her out to me. Also, best triple lindy since Rodney Dangerfield. She needs representation, STAT!

@jasonelias: Small cog? Hardly. BILLIONS spent on marketing to kids isn't 'small'.

Do yer homework, kiddo.

Do I think he deserved to die? Nope (Dick Cheney, yes. Candace Bushnell, yes.). But I have a feeling that if it was the guy who came up with Joe Camel that offed himself, I wouldn't be the only one piling on...

If you take your life, there are larger issues at hand than just what some fools on a blog say about you.

@Road_Rash: Jojo is lean and mean and always has been, actually.

Also: The "Game" doesn't exist without "Players" or "cogs' or whatever you wanna call them.

Second also: No 2 and 3-year-olds are watching McDonald's ads and being all like, "Dude, nice try! I'm too savvy for you, marketing man!"

Surely anonymous comments should have LESS power over a person than ones backed up with someone's full identity. Whatever the blog comments may have said, no-one in their right minds would conclude that killing himself was a better solution than remaining alive to parent his two children. If he had a preexisting condition such as depression, then any casual cruelty could have set off a destructive train of thought; if not blog comments, then failing to win an award or contract.

@JojoSaysNo: I hope he comes back for you.

@JojoSaysNo:
How many 2 and 3 year olds do you know that have jobs, disposable income, and wheels to get to MickeyD's without mommy and daddy's help? You can't convince a child to buy your product with the enabling parent. There'd be no game, cog, or big-business without the consumer. As a consumer it is my right to "super-size" and then run it off on the treadmill. Make decisions for yourself. . . I'll make mine.

All of you are still bitches and 'mos and jews and commies, but don't die because of me.

-signed, Gorillavsmarykate

@JojoSaysNo: It all goes back to the parents, Jojo. We teach our children what choices to make.

Oh, and Tilley was a parent. I second In Other News... say it to his kids. I dare you.

Gee, if we really had that kind of power think of all the annoying people we could get rid of!

@sexyhottiefoxy: Hear, hear. Time for some personal responsibility, people - yes, misleading ads disseminated among the young and impressionable American mind while they're watching after-school cartoons are deplorable, but at the end of the day, the child's parents - or at least their caregivers - are responsible for the food their kids eat. Guess what? I saw those ads as a kid. Guess what else? When I begged my mom to take me to get a happy meal because it had the toy I wanted, she said no, and fed me a decent, well-balanced meal instead.

@JojoSaysNo:
1. Little kids can't drive.
2. Turn off the fucking tv.
3. Sick of this argument it's stupid.
4. Get a heart.