"Every work of art is one half of a secret handshake…"
— Michael Chabon, Manhood for Amateurs (via)
(Source: austinkleon)
I’ve said a few things here about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which is due for a House vote once Congress gets back from the break. You’ve all likely heard here or elsewhere about how terrible a bill it (and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT-IP Act, or PIPA) is and how it would, with little doubt, destroy the Internet as we know it.
Marvel Comics and Time Warner (parent of DC Comics) have come out in support of SOPA. As much as I love comics, and enjoy many books from the Big Two, I have to take a stand here. People I know have spoken of boycotting the Big Two for far less (such as a story they didn’t like), or worthier causes (sexist and/or discriminatory material). I’ve always disagreed and said a line-wide boycott isn’t necessary, that simply not buying the offending books and putting your money towards more deserving work makes a clearer point.
But now the problem is bigger than any one book.
That’s why I will no longer purchase any comics from Marvel or DC (or any media from Time Warner) until they publicly renounce their support for SOPA. I urge all of you to do the same, and to make your voices heard through calls, letters, petitions or whatever means is available to you. Let them know that you will not sit idly by while they support a bill that would effectively allow government and big business to censor the Internet at will.
I urge you to stand for this.
Mark Anderson Columnist – Aplacetolovedogs.com
![austinkleon:
Howard Gossage, The Book of Gossage
I began the year—my first year working in the marketing business—reading The Idea Writers and Hey, Whipple, both books that are both fairly optimistic about doing good work in the industry. Then, mid-year, I read Ogilvy’s Confessions, now, I’m finishing out the year with Gossage, who was a brilliant advertiser, but who said, “I don’t know a single first class brain in the business who has any respect for it.”
Gossage is one of those guys you’re really surprised isn’t more talked about today—I mean, in addition to his ads, the man basically made Marshall McLuhan a household name, taking it upon himself to run a campaign introducing McLuhan’s work to the states.
British director Ashley Pollak has been trying to make a film about Gossage, but I’m not sure how it’s going. Here’s the trailer →
There are so many ideas in this book, so many brilliant bits, that it’s a little dizzying. His prose is not very easy to slog through, but it’s worth mining for the diamonds.
Here are a few:
“The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
“Copywriters are very strange people who have only reached copywriting after eliminating every other means of making a living through writing”
“‘Disimprovement’ is a wonderful word invented by an Irish client of ours. It means making things worse by trying to make them better.”
“There are unlimited ways of making a lousy idea look brilliant….there is hardly any way at all to make a lousy idea read brilliantly.”
“[A performance is] a book which is published and read simultaneously.”
“I don’t know how to speak to everybody, only to somebody.”
More Gossage →](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwkf3ihGQV1qz6f4bo1_500.jpg)
Howard Gossage, The Book of Gossage
I began the year—my first year working in the marketing business—reading The Idea Writers and Hey, Whipple, both books that are both fairly optimistic about doing good work in the industry. Then, mid-year, I read Ogilvy’s Confessions, now, I’m finishing out the year with Gossage, who was a brilliant advertiser, but who said, “I don’t know a single first class brain in the business who has any respect for it.”
Gossage is one of those guys you’re really surprised isn’t more talked about today—I mean, in addition to his ads, the man basically made Marshall McLuhan a household name, taking it upon himself to run a campaign introducing McLuhan’s work to the states.
British director Ashley Pollak has been trying to make a film about Gossage, but I’m not sure how it’s going. Here’s the trailer →
There are so many ideas in this book, so many brilliant bits, that it’s a little dizzying. His prose is not very easy to slog through, but it’s worth mining for the diamonds.
Here are a few:
- “The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
- “Copywriters are very strange people who have only reached copywriting after eliminating every other means of making a living through writing”
- “‘Disimprovement’ is a wonderful word invented by an Irish client of ours. It means making things worse by trying to make them better.”
- “There are unlimited ways of making a lousy idea look brilliant….there is hardly any way at all to make a lousy idea read brilliantly.”
- “[A performance is] a book which is published and read simultaneously.”
- “I don’t know how to speak to everybody, only to somebody.”
“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.” —Howard Gossage
Currently reading The Book of Gossage.
An astute quote.
(Source: nevver)
