Return of the twat

"Six months ago, I began writing a blog entitled bonfireofthebrands.com. I announced on the site that I was going to destroy every branded item in my possession, having concluded that I was suffering from an addiction to the status and aspirations surrounding brands. As a former editor of youth lifestyle magazines, I had caught a glimpse of the inner workings of advertising and marketing, and found some practices distasteful. Furthermore, I felt rather cheap that I had used my position to champion these brands, almost as if they were gods. So in order to cleanse this addiction and highlight some concerns surrounding advertising and consumerism, I vowed to burn all my stuff and start again, brand free."

Marketors engaged in distasteful practices?! As if! Thank God our Messiah has arrived to open our eyes, maaaaan. These attention-seeking ramblings are from Neil Boorman, former editor of Sleaze and general twat-about-Sugartown. He actually sums up what's wrong with his retarded idea fairly well himself, saving me the trouble:

"...here was another middle-class London journalist moaning on about the luxuries that many around the world cannot afford. Instead of burning these things, why not give the lot away to charity or, better still, just count my blessings and keep quiet?"

Well, quite. This guy's got previous as well. Check out Sleaze: A Warning From History which I wrote for Dot-Alt when it was still a zine. In essence: the magazine he edited espoused anti-brand rhetoric as a style thing, while carrying ads-a-plenty for all the usual brands. The man could teach Hypocrisy 101 at the time, and there's no reason to think he'd be any worse at teaching it now he's had his life-changing epiphany.

In October 2004 he stuck the boot into the light-hearted fun and games of Pillow Fight Club, lying through his teeth in The Guardian by claiming to report on an event he clearly didn't attend (I can explain how I know this, it's not massively interesting). This cynical hatchet-job-for-cash saw him express his:

"profound disappointment that the best we can do with freedom of speech and a spare afternoon is an exercise in extreme futility"

Speaking of which, he's burning all his stuff in London on Sunday. The event is followed by a 'reception', and has a number to RSVP to on its flyer. I'd suggestion turning up and barracking him, but why on earth would you want to give him the satisfaction?