Back to Bob Dylan and his ad campaign for Cadillac — thanks to Hugh McD. for the following email, headed “A (not so) new art form.”

Mr. Dylan has decided to create a work of art. No one else can go to a
corporation and say I want to do a two minute film with a slow talking blues
and be granted artistic freedom. He has been thinking about this since he was
in his twenties, but he did not have the clout at that time to approach
lingerie companies or Cadillac.

Now, here is an example of the “world’s worst poet” (William McGonagall, died
1902, compatriot of Robby Burns, and the “worst poet” shtick was deliberately
cultivated, like Dylan’s image as an itinerant carnival worker). McGonagall
wrote some ads, apparently for fun, including the following (there are more):

SUNLIGHT SOAP
You can use it with great pleasure and ease
Without wasting any elbow grease;
And when washing the most dirty clothes
The sweat won’t be dripping off your nose
You can wash your clothes with little rubbing
And without scarcely any scrubbing;
And I tell you once again without any joke
There’s no soap can surpass Sunlight Soap;
And believe me, charwomen one and all,
I remain yours truly, the Poet McGonagall.

McGonnagal did public readings, and while some laughed, the crowds went wild and
one occasion a jubilant mob carried him on their shoulders down the street.

I have my own little ad in mind for bottled water: “Every molecule of our water
is made out of the purest hydrogen and the freshest oxygen, created with loving
care shortly after time began”.

McGonagall’s website: http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/

So there you go.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• CADILLAC
• Bob’s Philharmonic Orchestra
• I’ll drink to that