Always outnumbered. Generally overdresssed.

Monday, November 17, 2008

And with Labours of Ignorance fill every place

Bit slow on the uptake with this one, but I thought this stunt was ace.

One of the groups involved in this was the Anti Advertising Agency, who make me feel pretty uncomfortable about the amount of time I spend thinking up visual clutter. Of all the arguments against advertising I find theirs one of the most persuasive - the idea that it causes desire, rather than merely directs it, always seemed a bit naive to me.

What strikes me as ironic is that what they do looks just like really good modern advertising. I know some of them are recovering creatives, and I know partly they do it on purpose for devilment.

I was put in mind of a cyber-spat I had with Neil Boorman, erstwhile Shoreditch Twat, about his book the Bonfire of the Brands. I'd picked a fight with him based on the fact that he was using Facebook, a brand, a rather big brand, to promote his anti-brand book. He clocked that I worked in advertising and basically told me to fuck off, saying sarcastically, "actually you're right, I really want to work in advertising, this whole burning all my possessions thing is just an attempt to get my book in at Mother."

Weirdly, it is exactly the kind of thing you'd need to do to get your book in at Mother. The anti-advertising message is the fresh new advertising message. We may as well all kill ourselves now.

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