The Hard Sell (Short Story, 12,000 Words)

Finally, a new story post!

This was a class assignment originally intended to be an essay, but I managed to wheedle my way into doing it as a piece of prose. The subject was anti-consumerism, and specifically anti-consumerism activists. I chose to write would could essentially work as a introduction to the concept contained within a story – an introduction to not just what these adbusters and culture-jammers do, but also the politics and hypocrisy sometimes prevalent in the culture. Although I handed in the piece today, I still consider this a personal first draft and would like to refine it further on my own.

Much of this was based on interviews with members of the adbusters, the Space Hijackers of London, and various personal manifestos such as Banksy’s “Wall and Piece”, the autobiography of T-KID 170 and the manifesto of Shepard Fairey, creator of the “Andre the Giant” cult sticker phenomenon.

I’ve given the story its own page, just because it’s so large. Hopefully a second draft will knock off a few thousand words. I’d love some harsh feedback on this one. Did you learn anything when you got to the end?

CLICK HERE FOR “THE HARD SELL”