The Problem with “X Is Dead” Thinking
Cookies are dead.
Third-party data is dead.
Identity is dead.
The AdTech industry loves to put things in boxes. Technologies. Narratives. Entire categories of data. We like them clean, labeled, and wrapped up neatly. Pick your headline. Pick your defunct relic. Make it your villain. Then move on. It’s understandable why this kind of thinking takes hold. It’s catchy. It travels well. And in a world full of AdTech uncertainty, it creates the illusion of clarity. Declaring something “dead” feels decisive. It simplifies complexity into a narrative that’s easy to repeat, easy to plan against, and easy to explain to stakeholders.
The problem: is it true?
Are these things actually dead in practice?
Or, are we tired of writing about it and ready to move on?
Over the past few years, we’ve collapsed very different data types, technologies, and buzzwords into the same buckets and judged them together. When one part failed, the entire category was written off. Nuance disappeared. Precision went with it.
In data, third-party data became synonymous with third-party cookies. Identity-based approaches were treated as interchangeable. Entire classes of signals were judged by their weakest implementation—or by tangential privacy risk—rather than their best use cases. In the rush to simplify the conversation, we traded accuracy for speed.
The irony is that the industry has never had or used more data — especially third-party data. But first-party data has become the star quarterback, while everything else gets shoved into the AV club. Declaring something “dead” is less about performance and more about choosing sides. Ignoring the so-called geeks doesn’t mean they’ve stopped quietly running the place (Hasn’t anyone seen Revenge of the Nerds?).
This is where the conversation needs to change.
Most data and tools aren’t dead. At best, they’re quietly and consistently used as the backbone of the ecosystem. At worst, they’re poorly governed, poorly understood, and poorly applied. And when they inevitably disappoint, the conclusion isn’t “we need to rethink how we’re using this”—it’s “this no longer works.”
That mindset makes it easier to move on.
It doesn’t make us better.
If the industry is going to keep using the term “third-party data,” it needs a more useful definition than a label tied to outdated technology choices. 1st and 3rd party data will always have a place at the table. Quality data isn’t defined by where it came from—it’s defined by how it behaves in practice. Whether it’s flexible enough to balance relevance and scale, supported by real performance history, built with privacy at its core, and directed to the people expected to act on it.
That level of precision takes more effort than declaring something dead.
But it’s also the difference between tearing down and actually building up.
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