Add Art To Ad Diction Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

ADD ART TO AD DICTION

Personal principles are praised, but instead
Public Opinion's too easily led.
"Muddy-brained People" must beg for its bread
bewildered by twenty-six cynics of lead.
Art? artificial are bland bywords bred,
sending signals' subliminal colour code thread.
Cold copy-writers custom importune
composing cant catchwords to siphon off fortune.
Publicity [p]reaches wherever we tread,
an encroaching octopus tentacles spread,
pours bland inky blessings on eventhe dead.
Standardization, all pretence shed,
auspiciously offering for profits ahead:
mirage of status stands sales in good stead.

Cold creams, cosmetics, shampoo for fair hair,
stimulants, sedatives, to each his share,
'fake news' invents needs reducing stress, care.

Cookies consolidate sales' information -
statistical market research computation -
targetting most of mankind's consummation.
Spin sin pitch outreaches to every nation,
women, millenials' young generation.
(Commitments increase as old scruples are shed!)

Spring water purchased in neat plastic bottle,
sports car equipped with an elegant throttle,
everything sold, unemployment to throttle.

(With credit all waiting from wanting is fled!)
Threat of recession combined with inflation,
undermines structures of civilisation.
Recycling savings kills confrontation
from workers who'd otherwise lack occupation.
New goods and services fuel stimulation.

Odd sorts, shapes, sizes, confuse, so it's rare
that housewives, though willing, can truly compare;
that package costs higher than product's unfair!

With prosperous public to politics wed,
privacy's threatened, hacks can't be gainsaid.
Consumer protection is often misled
by headlines enticing but small-print widespread.
Set in strip lighting, spoken, or read,
radio, T.V., broadcasted in bed.
Never has Internet, spammed, been immune,
text message repeating slick slogan in tune.
Printed in polychrome over our head -
in so many senses - for senseless fathead,
over wi-fi injudiciously spread
from high ultra-violet to low infra-red,
pasted on posters in blue, black, or red,
advertisement squares peoples' savings have bled!


12 July 1975 revised 5 August 2006 and 16 July 2018
previous title Advertising for previous version see below

notes:
twenty-six cynics of lead... Letters of the alphabet

William Caxton motto (The first British Printer)

'Through twenty-six soldiers of lead
I will conquer the world'

Muddy-brained people:

See
The People

The people is a beast of muddy brain
That knows not its own strength, and therefore stands
Loaded with wood and stone; the powerless hands
Of a mere child guide it with bit and rein;
One kick would be enough to break the chain,
But the beast fears, and what the child demands
It does; nor its own terror understands,
Confused and stupefied by bugbears vain.
Most wonderful! With its own hand it ties
And gags itself - gives itself death and war
For pence doled out by kings from its own store.
Its own are all things between earth and heaven;
But this it knows not; and if one arise
To tell this truth, it kills him unforgiven.

Tommaso Campanella 1568-1639
Translation by John Addington SYMONDS 1840_1893

for previous version see below title Advertising

Personal principles are praised, but instead
Public Opinion is too easily led.
The muddy brained People must beg for its bread
bewildered by twenty-six cynics of lead.
They're so artificial, those bland bywords bred,
yet represent love signals, colour code thread.
Cold copy-writers our custom importune
composing cant catchwords to cull off our fortune.
Publicity [p]reaches wherever we tread,
an encroaching octopus tentacles spread,
pours bland inky blessings on all but the dead.
Standardization with all pretense shed
industry offers fat profits ahead, -
as promise of status stands sales in good stead.

Cold creams and cosmetics, shampoos for the hair,
stimulants and sedatives, to each his share,
need needs be invented to spare us from care?

The sales pitch embraces those parts of the nation
accounting for most of mankind's consumption
according to up-to-date sales' information
from market research data based computation, -
women, the workers, the young generation.
[Commitments increase as old scruples are shed! ]

Spring water purchased in neat plastic bottle,
sports car equipped with an elegant throttle,
all must be sold, unemployment to throttle.

[With credit all waiting from wanting is fled! ]
For the recession, combined with inflation,
threatens the structures of civilization;
savings must shrink or we'll face confrontation
from all who would otherwise lack occupation.
New goods and services are stimulation.

Odd sorts, shapes and sizes, confuse, so its rare
that housewives, though willing, can truly compare;
that packaging costs more than product's unfair!

With prosperous public to politics wed,
privacy's threatened, it can't be gainsaid.
Consumer protection is often misled
by headlines enticing and small print widespread.
Set in strip lighting, or spoken, or read,
through radio, T.V., broadcasted in bed.
Nor ever has Internet, spammed, been immune,
text message records, repeats, slick slogan, tune.
Printed in polychrome over our head, -
in so many senses, for senseless fathead, -
over the airwaves judiciously spread
from high ultra-violet to low infra-red,
pasted on posters in blue, black, or red,
advertisement squares all our savings have bled!


12 July 1975 revised 5 August 2006