Farrell, a partner in the business, posted a letter on the firm’s website explaining that the agency has been “rendered irreversibly damaged” by the closure of its sister advertising business, Y Syndicate, and “the hellish brute that was 2009”.

He compared the company’s demise to the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a cargo ship that sank in a storm in 1975 taking all on board with it.

“In keeping with the shipping metaphor, please know that we went down whilst fighting the rolling seas every step of the way,” he said.

Youthography’s website listed seventeen staff, including Farrell and his co-founder Rick Tremblay. The business was based in Toronto.