Monday, August 23, 2010
Ah Pook The Destroyer
I'm not a huge fan of Burroughs, but I do love the way he says 'Ah Pook', and the arcane pantheon at the beginning. It reminded me of the 'This is The Man' thing below, which seems to get better the more I think about it.
It's amazing that it's taken this long for someone to do it - making the brand into one (or two) people and using the same models in all the publicity. Not to attach a brand to a celebrity but to make something you can peddle like a celebrity out of a brand. Will the FCUK Man do interviews then? Or is he actually Bulgarian with a silly high pitched voice?
When you think about it, it's what Paul Smith has been doing forever. One of the great things about him is that if people want to interview the brand they can just go and talk to him. And that sort excuses the fact that he sells all different objects - because you get a sense of an organising personality behind the whole business
Increasingly I think branding is a) a response to the decline of religion b) a reaction to the deep existential loneliness of the modern world.
But you know, that's just me.
I think I'm going to post about Kingsley Amis's book jackets next, which will be fascinating for you all. All 50 of you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I read pretty much everything Burroughs wrote when I was 15 or so. It seemed like a cool thing to do. But yes, a lot of it is utter shit in hindsight. However, read his essays - The Adding Machine in particular if you can get hold of it. His thinking/methodology is much more interesting than his writing. Plus the anecdotes about his exploits are (perhaps unintentionally) hilarious. I wanted to write a sitcom about the Beats and their time in Tangier at one stage.
I seriously love your blog. More dust-jacket discussion please!
Post a Comment