The need for new formats grows out of the oppressiveness of print. We must learn the techniques of advertisement. They consist of short, clear, non rhetorical statements. The ad words. The ad represents a break with the college education and the diarrhoea of words. The ad is a concentrated formula for communication. its information power has already outmoded the school system. The secret is to gain as much pleasure in creating the form as in expressing the idea.
How do we defend adopting the style of advertising when its function is so oppressive? As a medium we think it represents a revolutionary mode of production. Rejecting it has resulted in the stagnation of our minds and a crude romanticism in political culture. Those who turn up their noses at ads think in a language that is decrepit. Using the ad technique transforms the person who does it. It makes writing a pleasure for anyone because it strives in orality in print.
What we mean by the use of ad technique is to physically use it. Most of the time we are unconscious of ads and, if we do become conscious, we don't act upon them - don't subvert them. Ads are based on repetition. If you affect one of them, you affect all of them. Know the environment of the ad. The most effective way to subvert an ad is to make the contradiction in it visible. Advertise it. The vulnerability of ads lies In the possibility of turning them against the exploiters.
Jerry Rubin says you should use the media all the time. At least he goes all the way. This is better than the toe-dipping approach that seems so common these days. Of course, there are groups who say don't use it at all. And they don't. They will probably outlast Jerry since the basic technique of mass media is over-exposure. That is why Jerry has already written his memoirs. The Situationists say: "The revolt is contained by over-exposure. We are given it to contemplate so that we shall forget to participate."
We are not talking about the packaging of politics. Ramparts is the Playboy of the Left. On the other hand, the underground press is pornographic and redundant. Newsreel's projector is running backwards. And why in the era of Cosmopolitan magazine must we suffer the stodginess of Leviathan? We much prefer reading Fortune - the magazine for 'the men in charge of change' - for our analysis of capitalism.
There is no getting around it - we need new formats, entirely new formats. Otherwise we will never sharpen our wits. To break out of the spell of print requires a conscious effort to think a new language. We should no longer be immobilised by other people's words. Don't wait for the news to tell you what is happening. Make your headlines with presstype. Cut up your favourite magazine and put it together again. Cut big words in half and make little words out of then - like ENVIRON MENTAL CRISIS. All you need is a good pair of scissors and rubber cement. Abuse the enemy's images. Turn the Man from Glad into a Frankenstein. Making comic strips out of great art.
Don't let anything interfere with your pleasure.
Don't read any more books - at least not straight through. As G.B. Kay from Blackpool once said (quoting somebody else), "Reading rots the mind." Pamphlets are so much more fun. Read randomly, write on the margins and go back to comics. You might try the Silver Surfer for a start.