Improperganda - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903399009 ISBN 13: 9781903399002

Publisher: Vision On Publishing Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

During times of misinformation phobia, panic about corporate
co-opting of culture and a global epidemic of ‘publicists’, it’s reassuring to be reminded that there’s a long, colourful and disreputable history of attempted manipulation of the media and (hopefully) the public. After years of working with exposure seekers ranging from big business to S&M freaks, revered British publicist Mark Borkowski has collected photographic evidence going back over a hundred years to celebrate the art of the attention-grabbing stunt, framing the bizarre, desperate and sometimes insidious tactics of these renegade advertisers’ manquee, with informative essays and wry captions.
‘Improperganda’, as Borkowsi points out in his introduction, may be immoral, but it is also entertaining, and the images contined within this comprehensive study are magnificently surreal.

Starting with impresario PT Barnum’s tiniest exhibit,Tom Thumb, Improperganda takes the reader on an exhaustive journey through the fake and sensational photographs that have unscrupulously hijacked mass attention, right up to present-day advertisements for ‘clean’ warfare as used by the US Department of Defense in the Gulf War.

The brilliant irony of Improperganda is that whilst exposing the attention-hogging motives behind the bearded ladies and wirewalkers, titillating pictures of Monroe and Diana Dors, ten-ton apple pies, nude film premieres and Salvador Dali and Sex Pistols stunts, the book forms a sensational package in it own right and provides a great advert for Borkowski. Vital post-modern fun.

About this title

Review

"If indeed pictures do speak a thousand words, Improperganda speaks volumes, leaving many of its coffee-table contemporaries positively mute." -- Heat Magazine NIPPLE NEWS

"Improperganda includes the cute, the sexy, the unsettling and the downright absurd..." -- The Independent

"So let’s hear it for those naughty folk who wanted to give us anything – but the weird, wonderful, mad, stupid, freakish and downright untrue." -- Evening Standard

Synopsis

A celebration of the greatest publicity stunts, scams, hype and PR heists of all time, this text is Mark Borklowski's history of these modern myths, told as an insider.

Edition details

• Publisher: Vision On Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1903399009
• ISBN 13: 9781903399002
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 100
• Editor: Borkowski Mark