Is AdLand Suit Rubbish?

A helpfully anonymous commenter recently suggested that this blog had become 'rubbish, now that the mystery's gone'. Given the history of ALS, it would be churlish of me to rebuke said commenter for hiding behind anonymity - instead, I thought I'd take his or her comment seriously, and have a think about what this blog used to stand for when my identity was a secret, and whether or not it can still stand for the same now that who I am is out there for all to see.

Now, call me conceited, but I never imagined the anonymity of ALS would matter that much to most of the people that read it. I was well aware that there were people out there who liked to imagine I was Lord Bell, Johnny Hornby or David Ogilvy's ghost, but I always believed them to be in the minority. I never suggested I was famous, or a Campaign-regular - just a senior Suit who'd been around the houses a bit, was fed up of reading about the lack of account management presence on-line, and wanted to share his views and thoughts on a variety of Suit-related experiences. And that's what I've done - if that's disappointing to you, or if that's not what you're wanted, then I offer no apology for not being what you wanted me to be. You don't have to read it. In fact, why are you reading it? The anonymity was selfish - it was more a self-defence mechanism than anything, allowing me to write what or how I liked without fear of rebuke. I never really thought it would make any difference to people reading the blog.

And fortunately, the vast majority of comments, emails and tweets I receive support my theory - people like ALS for what it is and for what I've written, not for who I might have been. And, as I've said before, what ALS is and what I write are not going to change. No, I won't be slagging off my Agency's work or Clients, but I never did. In fact, if you look back, my being rude about anybody's work is a fairly rare (although not completely non-existent) occurrence. That's not what this was supposed to be about.

I don't deny that the blog hasn't been what I've wanted it to be of late: predominantly because I haven't had enough time to post anywhere near as often as I'd like to. That will change in the new year, and I will continue to write with the confidence (and, who knows, maybe arrogance) that I've written with thus far. And once I'm writing regularly again, if the blog isn't, for some intangible reason, what is was when I was just a mysterious, headless avatar, then I'm sure you'll let me know. I'd be extremely disappointed if you didn't.

So - Here I Am

Well. There it is. ALS's enormous (literally, rather than figuratively) head. ALS's face. ALS's rather large, if slightly nervous, grin.

Except my name isn't really AdLand Suit. That would have been a coincidence too far.

No. My name's Dan Shute, and I'm a Board Account Director at Delaney Lund Knox Warren. (Which, interestingly, is an agency that garnered precisely zero votes when we did a 'Where Does ALS Work?' poll, many moons ago.)

So, that's that. You know who I am. Secret's out. I guess the main question to answer now is 'What's next?' - so here we go.

Essentially, nothing will change. My employers haven't known about ALS until now, but the fact that they now do isn't going to change the things I write, or the way I write about them. I believe in the importance of what I've been doing here as much if not more than I did when I started this blog, and I definitely believe in the importance of the role Suits have to play more than ever. So why would I stop?

One of the joys of blogging and twitter is that you're only as entertaining, interesting or engaging as the ideas that you have and the words that you write - job titles or celebrity status hold no real truck, you stand or fall on the quality of the words you write, and the relevance and power of what you're writing or tweeting about. For whatever reason, a lot of people have come to care about what I write here, and have come to enjoy reading it. I'm incredibly proud of the number of people who read my nonsense, and who care enough to comment and share it. So why would I change?

Furthermore, as I've tried to point out in the past, this isn't an anonymous blog so much as a pseudonymous blog. AdLand Suit is not a character - he's not Dave Knockles, as brilliant as Dave Knockles undoubtedly is. AdLand Suit is me, writing in my voice, sharing my views, on things that I care about, and things that I think are important. The only difference now is that you know my real name. AdLand Suit is still here, and he's still writing. So why would anything else change?

And that's that. All that remains for me to say is thank you to the small number of people that have helped me keep this a (kind of) secret up 'til now, and that I remain in awe at the amount of goodwill, collaboration and, ultimately, cash for a good cause this blog and its accompanying (and much more sweary) twitter feed has generated - you're all fucking awesome, and Elika and I will be in the Perseverance on Lamb's Conduit Street this Wednesday evening (December 2nd) from 8.30pm, if anyone (or indeed everyone) fancies stopping by. First round's on me.

Oh, and you absolutely have to keep contributing here. Marie Curie is still an awesome cause, and we've already made a fantastic amount of money, but if each of you donate a couple of quid (or even a solitary quid, if that's all you can afford), then we'll have done a brilliant thing. I'll do a proper post on the donation at the end of the week, rather than try and wrap it up in this.

I'll see you all at the bar. Cheers.

Who Is AdLand Suit?

So. The time has come. I'm taking off the mask. Or, I suppose, growing a head.

After not really that many months, I'm going to be shedding my anonymity. It's a decision I've taken for a number of reasons, not least of which being my growing frustration with my inability to actually meet up with any of the people I've got to know through this little endeavour. (I'm also sick of signing emails 'ALS', and am convinced I'm going to get it wrong at some point, but that's another story.)

Now, I'm fairly conscious that any kind of big reveal is ultimately going to prove a little underwhelming - it's an eternal truth that having a mystery is always at least fifteen times more enjoyable than solving one. But I had an idea.

I'd like to try and do something nice, and (brace yourself) worthwhile with this thing. As such, I've set up a Just Giving page (which you can find here), and am accepting donations for Marie Curie Cancer Care, a genuinely brilliant charity. When the donations reach £1,000 (or rather, IF the donations reach £1,000...) I'll come clean. AdLand Suit will have a head.

I know. Weird.

As well as that, I'll also be taking the highest individual donator out for Lunch, at a restaurant that I suppose should probably be The Ivy (though be warned - I will try and persuade you to go for St John).

Obviously enough, I need your help. Lots of little donations is the best way forward, and that's only going to help if enough people know that it's going on. So tell people. Tell everyone. Tweet about it. Blog about it. Tell your mum about it. And then, hopefully, we'll be able to do something really quite lovely.

And, most importantly, I'll FINALLY be able to buy you all a beer. Which will be awesome.

The Real AdLand Suit

So, a few people have questioned my anonymity. Or, to be more accurate, questioned why I'm anonymous - to question my anonymity itself would be to suggest that my real name is Adland Suit, and that I don't have a head, which would be ludicrous. I have a very fine head, thank you very much. Anyway - I digress.

I just wanted to explain to you, my loyal readers, what lies behind the anonymity, what benefits it brings, and what tribulations it can provoke.

First and foremost, I can get away with an awful lot more on this blog, and can be a lot more frank in my assessment of ads, campaigns, brands, companies and people than I could be if my face and name were sitting atop of every post. And that works for views both positive and negative: if I think something is awful, I can be totally honest without having to worry about politicking; and if I think something is wonderful then I can say so without being accused of obsequiousness. I can write about people's over-complication of 'digital' without having to worry about alienating the people I work with who insist of having the word in their job title. And if I ever felt the need, I could write about my CEO being a tool without fear of being fired. (I can't see myself doing that any time soon, incidentally - my CEO is really rather lovely, and really rather good.)

I'm also not going to deny that it's quite fun. In my head (which I definitely do have) then I'm essentially a superhero - AdLand Suit is the Superman to my Clark Kent, if you like. (If Clark Kent was a rather outspoken Board Account Director, rather than a mild mannered reporter.) The nice thing about 'in my head' is that the fact that I'm really more like City Boy with 1% of the readership holds no sway there. There's a time and a place for facts, and it ain't here. But having conversations about ALS with colleagues who have no idea is enjoyable, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

And finally, inasmuch as is ever possible, there's no personal agenda here. I've got no issue with people who use their blogs as self-promotional tools - the people who do it well are wise, intelligent people who prosper off the back of it. There are, of course, a lot of self-indulgent blog bores out there, but nobody reads their blogs. Ha. This blog is about raising awareness of the role of a Suit, encouraging debate about the role of a Suit, engendering conversation about a Suit's views on advertising and the value that we can add, and potentially, from time to time, helping Suits both current and future to be better at what they do. This blog is about me only because I am a Suit - AdLand Suit can do that in a way that a blog about me couldn't.

And yes, of course, it can be irritating. It makes it impossible for me to big up work that I'm involved in that I'm excited about - or even that my Agency is involved with. There are ways round that, of course, but I can't think of any that wouldn't involve me being massively self-aggrandising - and no, you wouldn't know that I was, but I would, and that's enough. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't, from time to time, wish that the relationships I'm forming as ALS could benefit me in real life - but not enough for me to 'come out', as it were.

I might one day. But not yet. For now I remain your humble, faithful, exceedingly well-dressed and fine-headed servant, AdLand Suit. Have great weekends one and all.