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1. �Before fast-forward, before the internet, before BuzzFeed started tweeting for Pepsi, the advertising industry, like the media industry, enjoyed the privileges of a bully pulpit,� wrote Jessica Pressler in her portrait of Droga5, an advertising firm that’s known for its unconventional campaigns (�Bullsh*t,� May 4�17). The story itself, AgencySpy’s Patrick Coffee noted, was its own marketing coup. �This morning,� wrote Coffee, �Droga5 scored what is now an increasingly rare thing in the agency world: a full-length profile piece in a non-trade publication � It’s an amusing read which shows us that even a serious-business agency doesn’t take itself all too seriously.� Perhaps not seriously enough, thought one New York commenter. �Shocked that Droga5 would let a piece like this get written,� wrote bessa7. �They come off sounding awful, collectively and individually. Probably not a great sign that an ad agency can’t even manage a piece about itself.� �Totally disagree,� responded PBandJ. �They sound exactly as they are: smart, all over the place, creative, crazy. Exactly the antidote to corporate in-house, which is why they’re hired.� BuzzFeed’s Anita Badejo agreed that the piece painted an appealing picture of modern advertising: �A fascinating window,� she wrote, �into the whimsical, and increasingly weird, world of modern advertising.� So did BuzzFeed’s Anne Helen Petersen, who tweeted, �wow o wow is the new Jessica Pressler profile of the �newfangled/absurd ad agency good.�
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2. Amy Larocca’s interview with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour covered topics ranging from her favorite TV shows to her feelings on raising children while pursuing a career (�In Conversation: Anna Wintour,� May 4�17). �I think it’s very important for children to understand that women work and that it’s fulfilling,� Wintour told Larocca. Her comment resonated with readers. �Anna Wintour is a hero to all us REAL business women,� tweeted Teréza Eliasz-Solomon. The Frisky’s Claire Hannum thought the article was humanizing, writing, �Anna Wintour shared the causes she’s passionate about and revealed that along with gay rights and gun control, she’s very concerned with changing the way we approach mental health issues in young people. I love that this is on her radar. The full interview is worth a read, if only because it makes Anna seem so � approachable. Normal, even!� Bustle’s Emily McClure wrote: �She is not the enigma that the public perceives her as. She is just a very busy woman. From being the editor-in-chief of Vogue to becoming the artistic director of Condé Nast, Wintour has no choice but to be on top of her game. She is Anna freaking Wintour. She doesn’t have time to �try’ to be a role model. She just is a role model.�
3. In �Which New York Is Yours?,� architecture critic Justin Davidson moderated a debate between the real-estate preservationist behind the website Vanishing New York, Jeremiah Moss, and the pro-development blogger Nikolai Fedak (May 4�17). Commenters were overwhelmingly in support of strong preservation laws and efforts to keep tenants, both commercial and residential, in their spaces. �NYC is falling victim to out-of-control real estate speculation,� wrote commenter jdubnau6. �Where is it written that a city should be a guaranteed gold mine for developers if the price to be paid is destruction of its very fabric?� Pennywise agreed: �Fedak talks about small businesses failing all the time as if there is nothing we can do about it, but when you have a restaurant like Union Square Cafe forced out because of rent increases, something is seriously screwed up. No one moves here so they can live on a street lined with banks and Starbucks � What exactly are these global millionaires going to be looking at in 30 years from their glass tower apartments? More boring glass silver towers.� �Commercial rent control for businesses of long standing (ten years or more) is long overdue,� wrote skyvue. �I’m speaking of businesses that are otherwise thriving but lose their leases because of a landlord’s greed.� �If they were viable,� responded mikecherepko, �they’d be able to pay the going rate for rents! If they can’t pay rent, they are not viable. I’d have a viable business too if I got to pay rents far below market.� �Any business can be priced out,� wrote back skyvue. �A 5 or 10 percent increase is one thing; a 40 or 50 percent increase is quite another. No business can withstand that. And to call it market rate is beyond ironic, since often it happens�and I’ve seen countless examples of this�that a landlord �evicts’ a venerable business with a huge rent increase, only to see that space remain empty thereafter for months on end.� Commenter thuggyBear was ��disappointed no one talked about the real fix for this: raising taxes�; the commenter suggested that money should go toward smarter development. �That’s where both guys have it wrong,� thuggyBear wrote. �We don’t need to stop building�we need to start building more of the right things � And let’s fund it by taxing the socks off the soulless profiteers that have tried to take the city away from us.�