Ordinary thieves

Over on BrandDNA Stan has posted this poster produced by MTV to discourage illegal downloading of music. Aside from the fact that it is slightly absurd and ineffectual as a message I find it rather kinky. This is no ordinary thief this is one not only downloads music but also pinches his mum's silk stockings and cuts eye holes in them. Maybe the meaning of ordinary criminal is the kind that does do the full-on nose bent to the left menace of a pair of unaltered L'Eggs (none of your sheer La Perla rubbish).

Stan mused on the use of the term ordinary criminal. I suppose the music industry, quite familiar with the kind of criminality that would qualify them as uber criminals - the kind that would make them a worthy nemesis to Spiderman or Bob Parr himself. You must have heard the stories of stolen royalties, payola and gifts of Cadillacs to black artists (which were them repossessed by the rental companies) - if you haven't then read Hit Men. 'Ordinary criminal' smacks of the language of a Dickensian magistrate sentencing a member of the oi polloi to be transported to the colonies as a punishment for failing to comb their hair or pull their socks up or some such offence to polite society that didn't quite warrant paying for a hangman and disposing of the vile remains.

The music industry doesn't seem to understand the fact that kids still love music is their enduring opportunity to exploit in some mutually beneficial way. If anyone knows about exploitation after all…?

Sadly pathetic attempts to shame their customers into submission by implying they are sad fetishistic geeks who like to wear women's underwear on their heads in their sad little bedrooms is going to have about as much effect as pathetic attempts to shame their customers into submission by implying they are sad fetishistic geeks who like to wear women's underwear on their heads in their sad little bedrooms.

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