Advertising Week New York returned to the Penn District this week with crowded escalators, dizzying lines, and Alix Earle on stage holding court as a "TikTok star-turned-entrepreneur." The main hall had all the familiar theater of cultural relevance.
Officially, the program arrived with, "at least in intent, less AI conversation." That resolve lasted until the session doors closed. The actual topic dominating the halls was "agentic media buying," with agency executives spending the afternoon debating "how much control software should have over the process."
It is an old conference dynamic dressed in new terminology. You put Earle under the lights to give the brand spend a face, and you run panels on autonomous bidding to figure out how to take the people out of the margin. The stage talent provides the creative justification for the budget. The automated buy software simply executes the trade at volume, with zero regard for who stood at the podium.
Earle got the applause in the Penn District. The software got the budget allocation.