New Order "Technique" Posters feature

POSTER MODERNISM

Renegade Art Terrorism or bumper tax loss, Barney Sumner or Benson Hedges, New Order or Soft Sell? Well, you‘re the customer!

Wherever you live in these septic isles, there’s a good chance you‘ve had your recent bus journeys enlivened by the sight of a 20 foot-high Day-Glo Cupid by the roadside. Silk Cut go Lysergic? No, merely the latest in a series of post-modernist wheezes by those lovable situationists at Factory. Bearing only the legend ‘New Order, advertising Technique’, it is, in case you’re a bit slow, a reminder that the lads have a new record available. As Factory informed me:

“As you’re aware NEW ORDER dislike the idea of advertising in the press, yet we still have an obvious duty to inform people that they have a new LP out. So originally we talked about flyposting but that, of course , is illegal. So we decided on the idea of billboards since it’s unusual and Peter Saville‘s sleeve makes for a really striking image and a rather neat pun (‘advertising Technique’),“ explained a Factory spokeswoman.

Whilst it‘s fairly standard practice in the States, it’s an unusual sales venture for a British act. And with New Order’s music being used on everything from Grandstand to serious documentary, it begs the question whether Manc’s coolest need to advertise at all.

Whatever, the hoardings (courtesy of major leaguers More O’Ferral) is appearing at 150 sites from North Scotland to Dorset till the end of the month. A quick vox pop in Birmingham revealed that one young lady ‘didn’t understand it’ while another thought it ‘typical Factory’. For a mere £22,000 it seems like a snip to me. And think yourself lucky, it could have been Happy Mondays leering down at your Granny in Market Harborough.

Stuart Maconie