0000 – The BLF Manifesto – Billboard Liberation Front

Texto

In the beginning was the Ad. The Ad was brought to the consumer by the Advertiser. Desire, self worth, self image, ambition, hope; all find their genesis in the Ad. Through the Ad and the intent of the Advertiser we form our ideas and learn the myths that make us into what we are as a people. That this method of self definition displaced the earlier methods is beyond debate. It is now clear that the Ad holds the most esteemed position in our cosmology.

• Advertising suffuses all corners of our waking lives; it so permeates our consciousness that even our dreams are often indistinguishable from a rapid succession of TV commercials.

• Different forms of media serve the Ad as primary conduits to the people. Entirely new media have been invented solely to streamline the process of bringing the Ad to the people.

• Old fashioned notions about art, science and spirituality being the peak achievements and the noblest goals of the spirit of man have been dashed on the crystalline shores of Acquisition; the holy pursuit of consumer goods. All old forms and philosophies have been cleverly co-opted and re"spun" as marketing strategies and consumer campaigns by the new shamans, the Ad men.

• Spiritualism, literature and the physical arts: painting, sculpture, music and dance are by and large produced, packaged and consumed in the same fashion as a new car. Product contents, dictated by trends in hipness, contain a half-life matching the producers calender for being supplanted by newer models.

• Product placement in television and film have overtaken story line, character development and other dated strategies in importance in the agendas of the filmmakers. The directors commanding the biggest budgets have more often than not cut their teeth on TV Ads & music videos.

• Artists are judged and rewarded on the basis of their relative standing in the ongoing commodification of art objects. Bowing to fashion and the vagaries of gallery culture, these creators attempt to manufacture collectible baubles and contemporary or "period" objects that will successfully penetrate the collectors market. The most successful artists are those who can most successfully sell their art. With increasing frequency they apprentice to the Advertisers; no longer needing to falsely maintain the distinction between "Fine" & "Commercial" art.

• And so we see, the Ad defines our world, creating both the focus on "image" and the culture of consumption that ultimately attract and inspire all individuals desirous of communicating to their fellow man in a profound fashion. It is clear that He who controls the Ad speaks with the voice of our Age.

• You can switch off/smash/shoot/hack or in other ways avoid Television, Computers and Radio. You are not compelled to buy magazines or subscribe to newspapers. You can sic your rotweiler on door to door salesman. Of all the types of media used to disseminate the Ad there is only one which is entirely inescapable to all but the bedridden shut-in or the Thoreauian misanthrope. We speak, of course of the Billboard. Along with its lesser cousins, advertising posters and "bullet" outdoor graphics, the Billboard is ubiquitous and inescapable to anyone who moves through our world. Everyone knows the Billboard; the Billboard is in everyones mind.

• For these reasons the Billboard Liberation Front states emphatically and for all time herein that to Advertise is to Exist. To Exist is to Advertise. Our ultimate goal is nothing short of a personal and singular Billboard for each citizen. Until that glorious day for global communications when every man, woman and child can scream at or sing to the world in 100Pt. type from their very own rooftop; until that day we will continue to do all in our power to encourage the masses to use any means possible to commandeer the existing media and to alter it to their own design.

• Each time you change the Advertising message in your own mind, whether you climb up onto the board and physically change the original copy and graphics or not, each time you improve the message, you enter in to the High Priesthood of Advertisers.

Jack Napier

John Thomas

www.billboardliberation.com

Context

Although the date of realease of the manifesto is uknown, this was published on the official website of The Billboard Liberation Front the section “Our Mission” (1). The BLF Manifesto is also part of the archive of the website Tactical Media Files, site in which was published in June 18, 2010 (2). By the other hand, the signers of the manifesto are Jack Napier, one of the collective's founders and John Thomas, who is accredited as editor of The Billboard Liberation Front (3).

Authors

The Billboard Liberation Front was founded in 1977 by Jack Napier and Irving Glikk in San Francisco after its first action as a collective that was held in December 25 of that year (4). The action was an "alteration and improvement" to 9 Fact Cigarette advertisements, the intervention achieved a high impact and exposure with the help of Simon Wagstaff, first press agent of The Billboard Liberation Front (4). Since its creation the group considers itself as "a secret private entity, without telephone number or permanent address" (3). The Billboard Liberation Front is dedicated to modifying advertisements by changing some words that alter the content in order to offer anti-corporate messages.

References

(1) http://www.billboardliberation.com/manifesto.html

(2) http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/articles/3374/T

(3) http://www.billboardliberation.com/

(4) http://www.billboardliberation.com/history.html

Links

URL: http://www.billboardliberation.com/manifesto.html

Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20180329003949/http://www.billboardliberation.com/manifesto.html