Shingy, AOL's secret weapon for staying hip, is leaving

Are all the cool kids going to leave AOL now that its official "digital prophet," Shingy, won't be around to tell the company what to do? According to Gizmodo, Mr. Shingy wrote a good-bye letter on LinkedIn that read, "I have decided it's time to explore a new path."

From Gizmodo:

It's possible no one really knows what Shingy did as a digital prophet. In 2014 he told the New Yorker that his six-figure salary paid for him to watch "the future take shape across the vast online landscape," adding that, "I fly all around the world and go to conferences" and "I listen to where media is headed and figure out how our brands can win in that environment."

But one anecdote from that story painted a clearer picture of Shingy's role.

Next, Shingy stopped by the office of Erika Nardini, the chief marketing officer of AOL Advertising, and handed her an iPad Mini. "Wanted to show you a little brain fart I had on the plane," he said. It was a cartoon he had drawn of a bear wearing zebra-print pants and a shirt covered in ones and zeros.

"Love it, love it, love it," Nardini said. "I'm thinking of the bears more as a metaphor."

"A thousand per cent," Shingy said.

Image: YouTube/Cloud Edits