• Ad Age, Monday, April 5, 2010 8:26 AM

The Ad Age ad critic is bidding adieu after 25 years and, by his count, about 1,200 AdReviews columns that blithely attempted to reverse a trend toward "billions of client dollars every year ... being squandered by narcissists, conmen, naifs and a number of blithering morons." I will go back and savor the 2,500 words after deadline but this paragraph jumped out at me:

"Perhaps you've noticed that I always referred to myself as 'AdReview' or 'the AdReview staff' and employed the 'editorial we' -- also known as the 'royal we'-- to lend an air of pomposity, arrogance and self-regard. 'AdReview' was a windbag. My inspiration was the great alt-weekly columnist Cecil Adams (née Ed Zotti), who understood the best way not to be dismissed as an obnoxious know-it-all is to be a caricature of the obnoxious know-it-all. My AdReview persona was seldom me; it was usually 120% of me -- a fact apparently lost on many, many readers."

Having edited a humor column that Bob freelanced for a while for Adweek before signing up with Age, it was not lost on me. His voice will be missed.

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