GENOMICON

An inside out advertising crap-sandwich, with the crap on the outside and the genius in the middle.

It’s a piece of absolutely superb advertising… Nick Cave talking about his new book (and for the record, Nick Cave is not only one of the best writers I’ve ever come across, but he’s also the only human being I’ve ever seen charismatic enough to hold down a 30,000 audience at Reading Festival, in broad daylight, on his own) (and I have seen a LOT of bands – thousands, easily) – but that aside, this is a truly great piece of advertising. I will buy whatever he’s selling because by being honest and direct, and a bit self deprecating and… human, he’s engaged me.

And on either side of this is “advertising” which sounds conniving and manipulative… even though it’s absolutely state of the art, and probably cost hundreds of thousands to make. It has had writers writing it, actors acting it, all manner of effects and editing and gloss and so on… and even though I don’t even really know what it is that it’s advertising, I don’t believe it. You can’t see any substance for the polish… because there IS no substance.

I think David Byrne once said that “The better someone’s voice is, the harder it is to believe what they’re singing”

I think Thom Yorke once said that “the meaning of life is heartfelt communication between people”.

You can’t fake it any more. It’s got to be real.

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ps: And Nick Cave’s right about vinyl as well – and that’s a way out for the music industry. Market a physical product as being superior and “purer” than the compressed digital version… because let’s face it Possums, it is.