after having ‘given’ you those most beautiful buddhas from our earlier post, we wanted to add a few more words on marketing and advertising. much has been said already in our issues so far on this (in the same breath as money and the exchange of values), and our editor’s piece on the subject of guiding the draft project through the otherwise 100% air- and watertight ‘net’ of deception and persecution finally into public visibility should make it even more clear what stakes we’re talking about when it comes to what we’re truly doing.

there’s always been a discourse between a stylistic ‘telling’ and ‘showing’ among intellectuals and the ambiguity of a clamouring serenity within the typography based PRO-MOTION pieces now goes as far as it goes in terms of ‘selling’ and ‘telling’. while on the surface they seem to be ‘in your face’ messages, upon closer inspection, they’re actually solemn and ‘peacefully standing’. they’re not lying or telling things by boasting or hustling or grabbing. they’re our version of telling.

the imagery of buddhas, on the other hand, obviously doesn’t sell anything, they’re rather the antithesis of selling, if you really think about it. it’s more the case of buddhas deeming the project worthy of blessing it with their visibility, if you will. that’s putting it in general terms. of course, the true meaning goes much much deeper …

our actual products, then, the magazines, can clearly be positioned into the centre between those two main columns of ‘market’ positioning.

however, an interesting turning of tables has also occurred with this change of tack or this further level of unfoldment. while it hasn’t been so obvious before to the too vigorous or too oblivious that putting oneself into the context or frame of draft visibility is by no means a casual undertaking, the revelation of buddhas’ grace behind the project makes you think twice, doesn’t it? and it doesn’t just end there.

when uploading those pieces of content to our blog – exposing them to the ‘online world’ – we put them into the frame and context of draft magazine and when we in turn say to you that you can pass them on to your loved ones but ‘put them into a particular frame and context at your own risk’, then interesting questions arise for the online world as well. if sky pays enough to run their adverts in order to achieve visibility in this ‘free’ frame of reference – then who is it that is committing the ‘sin’ (or accruing the karma) of ‘blaspheming’ buddhas?

is it the machine that is distributing the ads?

is it the ones who set the machine in place?

is it the machine regulating the machine behind the distribution?

is it the company paying to have the ads run?

is it the company running the ads?

what if the massive gods behind sky are merely ‘using’ all those levels below?

what if higher gods than the ones behind sky are merely using them?

anyway, just another input into the whole draft monument that might hopefully make it even clearer that what goes on behind the surface has now become very very complex indeed, and sometimes even ‘dangerous’ …

(this has obviously also repercussions on what constitutes ‘free’ online ‘content’ as such).

London, posted through the free sky sponsored theCloud network outside the SwissRe monument theGherkin, Winter 2013