William Burroughs NIKE CM

[ZyxthePest]

Strangely enough, the movie adaptation of Naked Lunch had more machine fetishism than the book itself. So...should Cronenberg have done this commercial instead?

I don't know guys, I kind of like the idea of the commercial and non-commercial coming together sometimes. This is funnier in retrospect moreso than it probably was to Burroughs' fans at the time. Just go with it.

[Synskin]

What is the worst thing you have done for drugs?

[hermeschbird]

why why why William Burroughs had more self respect than that.....what the hell

[RickRudesMustache]

kind of interesting how he talks about technology around 1994 while showing his image appearing on a small screen device that look fairly close to what we use today as far as ipads, portable dvd players, phones and all these other portable media devices we use today.

[nondescriptman]

this is like hiring Carl Lewis to sell literature!

[kosmischesynth]

o.....k...... that was a..... wierd advert. I wonder if they got Burroughs to write the voiceover himself, you would've thought so, but it sounds scripted...

[usernamessucksomuch]

didn't allen ginsberg do a commercial as well?

[KAGE25X]

Yes it was Kansas

[ambertolina]

Do you mean you had to go to Kansas? I though WSB refused to leave Kansas the last few years of his life.

[KAGE25X]

I worked on this spot. Joe Pytka directed it. We had to go to Oklahoma to shoot WSB.

[hiyori13]

@KAGE25X REALLY!!?? Wow, that's great. Do you know if this was the only version, or was there another one with Burroughs in it? I kinda sorta seem to remember seeing another version, but maybe I just made it up in my head.

[KAGE25X]

@hiyori13

You are correct They had a few versions that I know of.

[ambertolina]

@KAGE25X I think you mean you had to go to Kansas.

[JimmyCarlinSk8]

That was scary! On a good way though

[dannyamosflynn]

You just shouldn't have done it!

[caseyspaos]

Is that a real ad? Did the evil transnational Nike have permission to use Burroughs? Talk about mixing the sacred and the profane!

[cinephilefromhell]

There's something frightenly comforting in WSB's delivery and just his voice in general. Like a nice junky grampa who says wise things to apathetic youth.

[lucky7monkey]

william s burroughs doesnt give a fuck what you think

[invid643]

This commercial is DOPE and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to reevaluate.

[KAGE25X]

@invid643 dude you get it. smart.

[samdoman]

Burroughs never wanted to be an icon for American counter-culture, and was a self confessed 'factualist' and 'libertarian conservative', who despised what he percieved his good friend Ginsebergs marxism, so its not really any kind of stain on his legacy, as he never claimed to be anti-capitalist or hold some kind of high-cultural high ground.

[joethepigg]

He was a junkie, a criminal, and an outlaw. He loved gangsters, Dillinger, Dutch Schultz, and anyone that broke the rules. He was a HOMOSEXUAL. His books and readings despise and ridicule control, government, and large corporations. I don't know what kind of intellectual shit you are talking, but the message from Burroughs was clear.

[samdoman]

Ah i forgot HOMOSEXUALS couldn't be capitalists, my bad. read Junky, read the part where he attempts to cultivate a farm on Texan desert, a real reflection of frontier America. He considered himself not a 'communist' or A 'liberal', but a 'factualist' who had no qualms about making money, especially if it could score him a hit of smack. The 'message from Burroughs' was anything but clear, it was individualistic and amoral.

[cinephilefromhell]

I never saw Burroughs as a homosexual personally. i just thought of himself as a hedonist akin to Aleistar Crowley.

[bong4200000]

@samdoman heh, you may have a point. Doesnt make it any less nauseating to see one of the greatest literary geniuses of the 20th century selling shitty shoes on television.

[alandream]

This is so wrong on so many levels. Jesus.

[Arbow1986]

I moved to Portland to become a writer paritly because I knew Burroughs spent at lot of time here in the late 80s and would chill with Gus Van Zant. It make me sad to see that Nike (based outside of Portland in Beaverton) kind of got on to having him to do this. it kind of takes the awe of having him been here

[kolum91]

Or perhaps Bill Hicks was just completely wrong.

Few people, Hicks included, are quite as Cool as William Burroughs.

I see no problem with Burroughs doing this.

If any of my favorite Bands did it, if Palahnuik did it, if Hicks did it, if most people did it, it would be artistic betrayal and a cheapening of their artistic work.

It doesn't apply to Burroughs, he is beyond such concepts as selling out.

[xBillyTheKidx]

i don't understand

[allthatisandeverwas]

@kolum91 And that's exactly why I love Hicks and hate like 75% of his fans.

[onthe165]

Bill Hicks said that once you do a commercial, you are off the artistic role call. Burroughs may be an exception to this rule if only because he had paid his dues, contributed so much to literary and artistic culture, and yet sadly was never given the credit he deserved. He was also ill at the time and most likely needed the money. R. I. P. Mr. Lee

[tjmccollum]

COMBAT!

[borgorusky]

WSB was here to go...maybe he thought some running shoes would come in handy

[MCKRUSH]

Strange choice ... the bulk of NIKE's target audience likely never heard of WSB (then or now), and many would likely balk at his work. So, why use him for the ad? Irreverence? Record cash surplus?

[RIMBAUD78]

that is so true

[hiyori13]

WSB was a cult figure at that time. He was featured in Laurie Anderson's stuff, appeared in a Ministry video, which was featured in Beavis and Butthead, Drugstore Cowboys was in theaters, did an album with Curt Cobain... So, he was very famous among the alternative rock people, which Nike targeted.

[goodvibesallround]

@hiyori13 he's been a cult figure since 1950.

[SpamNapkin]

Burroughs doing advertising...never thought I'd see that.

[guitar19904]

why would somone so anti establishmnent and anti NWO support nike? meh good artist either way

[pispiretana]

my dad met him & he made a book from him he is awesome ! I<3 him

[jamesedwardclard]

why would you get a 85 year old homosexual ex-junkie to be a spokesmen for running shoes?

[cdphatty]

strange marketing decision. just....strange

[malcolmriviera]

Love Burroughs. Hate Nike.

[atrapadoenlibertad3]

@malcolmriviera I hate Nike, and love burroughs, I hate to use the culture to fill their pockets, capitalist bullshit. Burrouhgs was against that.

[mggimcg]

hahaha oh my gosh.

[nvalidscreename]

william burroughs probably did it so he could be with all those sexy atheletes

[malcolmriviera]

Doubtful since he died in 1997

[butheadVSbevus]

Nothing makes me wanna play basket ball more harder and just do it than all the heroin homosexual poetry of william s. burroughs gotta love em

[romeosdistress]

anybody seen / read The Basketball Diaries ?

[butheadVSbevus]

hahaha

[Maxweber7]

Does anyone know what music is playing in the background? It seems very unusual for a sneaker commercial; more likely that it relates to Burroughs's interests in some way. Thanks!

[opiate115]

It's called 'The Things That I Used To Do' and it's by G Love and Special Sauce.

[floweringsilverzero]

dunno, it kinda does feel like bill sold out... then again "infiltrate" is probably a better term? that is if we believe his presence to be intrinsically subversive. nah he was probably a human being, and I agree mostly with VariedInterest that he probably wouldn't have respected this.

[CapitalFailsUsNow]

They obviously never read any of Burroughs work. William is laughing all the way to the bank.

[MarxBakuninMe]

It's strange that a man whose work seems largely preoccupied with control and manipulation would do an advert for, erm . . . Nike. But I bet he was laughing on his way to the bank.

[mikongo]

He always was the trust fund rich kid so I think he did quite alot of laughing on the way to his bank.

[romeosdistress]

He was never that rich, his family had left the Burroughs Corporation before he was born and sold their last share when he was 15.

This 'trust fund baby' image of Burroughs really has to stop - he was around a lot of poor people and he was a little richer but he still had to do a lot of things he wished he didn't to make ends meet

sorry, probably sound a bit overly defensive there of old Bill, I'm just rather sick of that stereotype people force on his memory

[mikongo]

Like what did he do that he wished he didn't? What do you do that you wished you didn't?

[Manusturbo]

Things you regret doing?

[davidgrahamscott]

Exterminating bugs...he liked them really.

[stlmxc]

in and the hippos were boiled in the tank, he wined and dined his friends all the time. also:

"His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a tidy sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment"

[RambleOn6249]

very strange...

[mssbee23]

best NIKE ad ever! the subliminal kid already.

[sjogro]

you stumped me.

[evanbohn]

double you tee eff? [bukowski wouldn't have been offered the job, but would still have boasted that he would have turned it down. old bill had some sick scheme in play by taking this gig, apparent only to him, but maybe it worked. maybe he's wearing a pair of nike in the western lands right now]

[Jmac0585]

He needed the money to pay for his naked lunch.

[taoist77]

Burroughs endorsing NIKE. Good Grief! It's the end of civilization.

[nightowl4064]

Bukowski wouldn't have done it : )

[Subutubiata]

What the fuck was he thinking of..? Jesus, the plastic horror just shines through. He doesn't even look like himself. Talk about the Devil's bargain. He must have been desperate for a fix to produce this rancid pile or putrid shite.

[retread01]

Somehow, seeing Burroughs 'sell out' like this doesn't upset or annoy me. It's strangely in keeping with his outlook on life. Why not take their money? Someone offers you money, take it. If you read his work you know he is on a completely different level for anything like doing an advert to alter. Why Nike chose him in the first place is the real question.

[VariedInterest]

Wrong.

[retread01]

I'm glad you took the time to explain yourself so thoroughly. Really altered my opinions. Just goes to show how a reasoned argument can influence others.

[VariedInterest]

I think a large appeal of his work for me, is that the focus characters are almost exclusively miserable, sociopathic jerks, and that he seemed so capable of drawing those observations out of himself without ever taking personal responsibility for it. He always cut to both sides of a principle while seeing the problem so passionately. He was a hateful nihilist and a jerk, but he also hated himself for it in equal parts. He wouldnt have respected himself for this.

[causticBANANA]

I guess he needed the money.

[innocent1234]

When he was asked why he did the commercial Burroughs said in an interview it was simply for the money. Don't know how much he got paid, but it was probably a lot. I don't blame him for it. I probably would have done the same...

[myroncope]

the beats were all egotists to begin with. They totally sold themselves right from the beginning.  I'm a reader of burroughs but they wouldn't have been famous without their giant egos

[myroncope]

Huh. Burroughs did sell out to the "devil's bargain" as he so often referred to.

[exadverso]

Nike 1 - Burroughs 0

[russellcroew]

Oh Contrare! ..."hustlers of the world(this is you Nike) there is one mark you can not beat....the mark inside"

-William Burroughs

Buy Puma or Addidas or Reebok..

[DutchComedian]

pretty sure that's G Love playing in the background "Things that I used to do"

[ChrisRichnak]

Burroughs was a great writer, naked lunch will go down as his greatest novel, the movie directed by David Cronenburgh was a masterpiece.I just new some body,who took their own life by putting their head in a oven and inhaled the gas, who thought Burroughs was evil for taking his wife's life, playing William Tell with a 45 revovlver. This doesn't explain why she took her life. She was just using misdireted annimosisty for her own problems. Nothing to do with William S. Burroughs.

[Mick342]

But My God It Is REFRESHING to S WSB Plug Nike Rather than The Latest Sports/Music/Movie/Television "Personalitey"doing So.

[gabiotta]

Bill has always been a hero of mine, i;m a bit gutted to find out he was a corporate shill.

[ChrisRichnak]

This guy is a master talker, but he is also a cunt. He shot his wife in the head, in the 1950's, in Mexico City, playing William Tell, trying to shot an apple off her head with a revolver. He left Mexico, without appearing in court, and than went on to use herion as his metaphor to write books, some he barely remembers. God bless capitalism!!

[alna1287]

That he was a cunt is quite a large part of his appeal.

Perhaps you missed that.

[monsterfashion]

Burroughs was thinking in global entertainment terms long before the internet.

[watnabe]

This is not the way I remember this commercial (even though I was beginning to think I just imagined it at all). Is there another version of it?

[GreatestPotential]

William Burroughs would probably grin slighty and shake his head sorta tisk tisk like and say "Just do it"

[FellmanBaines]

what would burroughs think of today's "youtube, myspace" reality.. I think he would fuckin' hate it.

[hiyori13]

Why? I think he'd love it. He was always in to technology and stuff.

[FellmanBaines]

you obviously are not familiar witht he work and times of William Burroughs.

[hiyori13]

Be careful who you're talking to. I translated most of his books into Japanese, and I know (and actually read) almost every WSB work. His early experiments with film and tapes (which can be seen on YouTube here), his fascination about direct brain stimulation, and the drug experiments, or even his cut-ups, all point to his fascination with new technology. He might even say that YouTube is his Reality Studio.

[Kaecyy]

You TOLD that dude. Damn! He never had any cause to suspect that you might be a WSB samurai, through your judicious used of the phrase "...and stuff" in your opening comment. Right on!

[killyourinternet]

He did not prove fellman wrong at all. Burroughs close friends have even said that he had the good fortune of dying before the onset of this soulless "youtube, myspace" reality.

[hiyori13]

If you disapprove it so much, why are you hanging around here and *god forbid* even COMMENTING on it, contributing to it's damning soullessness?

[tidalwave1978]

Ha ha... In the parlance of the modern age you totally owned our friend Fellman, there. I'm with you... I think Burroughs would have been endlessly fascinated by Youtube and networking sites. He might have discovered and explored the more disturbing facets of the internet, but that does not mean he would have distrusted or hated it outright. And I spent three years studying the man.

"You obviously are (sic) not familiar witht he (sic) work and times (mm?) of William Burroughs."

Quite.

[killyourinternet]

He has not proved Fellman wrong at all, but only illustrated his supreme ignorance regarding the character and essense of the great William Burroughs- who, was not only fascinated by also extremely wary of technology, when used improperly. At heart, burroughs was a humanist, not a deconstructionist- and when a technology threatens humanity, imagination, and our sense of wonder, burroughs would oppose it vehemently- he would have found our cyberculture particularly odious.

[cowboystitching]

Honestly I think the internet would have given him just another facet to explore the dark side of humanity, which he seemed to be quite fascinated with from the start. He was wary of technology when used for purposes of control, but he also said that the same technologies that could be used in the same way against governments and other powers. Remember the essay he wrote on using tape splicing to incite riots? The only reason Youtube and Myspace are odious is because people make them that way

[hiyori13]

WSB? Humanist? That's quite a stretch. As Burroughs himself often said, don't listen to what people might have said, look at his/her actions. Let's see, he shot his wife, totally abandoned his son, never gave a damn about his parents but leeched on to them until his 40s. Look at his last several work. He prays that the human race would perish sow that some stupid monkeys would survive. Somehow, this doesn't seem very humanistic to me.

[lukenukem1976]

@hiyori13 I really enjoy WSB stuff but you are spot on! :)

[gabiotta]

Burroughs was a humanist, please don't, you devalue him.

He would laugh his lovely old head off at you.

I am laughing at you in much the same way right now.

[Picaro1]

What? he wrote books about junkies?

[Kaecyy]

hiyori13-- You TOLD that dude. Damn! He never had any cause to suspect that you might be a WSB samurai, through your judicious used of the phrase "...and stuff" in your opening comment. Right on!

[bodiza420]

I still don't think he's talking about shoes.

[11zk07]

od course he's not talking abt shoes :)))..it's all abt the technology of ..drugs

[flyagaric23]

The purpose of technology:

Not to confuse the brain,

But to serve the body --WSB

The Purpose of Nike:

Not to confuse the brain

But to sell lots of sneakers. --Fly Agaric 23

[MarquisdeBarrabas]

"It's still an easy score" - right, Bill?

[RatatRatR]

sigh

[GreatestPotential]

Hey, I'm Easy. Uncle Bill's All Purpose Clorox Bleach (Serve Coming) America's Home Remedy Makes Anything Possible. A Technology Cut-Up - Not A Brain Commercial.

[shikaka71]

he must have done this only for the money. There is no artistic merit in doing a commercial. And he claimed to despise the materialistic world but now he's contributing to it. I am a huge fan of his but I was really disappointed to see this. It just makes him a bit of a hypocrite, no matter what defence you use.

[daveTmkio]

I like what he has to say. But I don't care for the commerical part of it.

[ThePrisoner6]

I never figured him as someone who would do commercials. Much less for Nike.

[ipalindromei]

i know, right? it seems like maybe after you pass a certain age you just don't give a fuck anymore. plus he got rediscovered by the "hip" young generation of ad execs of the 90s.

[barnaclelapse]

I think if a legendary writer in his mid-70's wanted to do something that would make him socially relevant for a moment, then that was his business.

[1800generalnow]

if you think william s burroughs has ever been socially irrelevant, you're a jackass

[6billionghosts]

we're all sell outs

[hiyori13]

Thanks for the comment. You're right, to say that they invented the computer was an overstatement. Just a minor correction, but it wasn't his father, his grand father.

[RUR2006]

it's a shame!

[crackingaces]

the heart, body is animal

the brain is human.

God gave men brains

to look after their bodies.

[justgotbackfromnam]

burroughs family owned a computer company.

[hiyori13]

Yeah, his grand dad invented it... It became (a part of) Unyis today...

[crackingaces]

cool.

ty for the info

[Stumpp3]

Really very funny. It's more like Nike pushing Burroughs than the other way around. Nike's the new drug dealer, and what a better way to push a product than a lifelong junkie? Burroughs always was a interesting guy.

[rockinsuzie]

So long ago.....stop your bitching and respect the man for what he was........your got your money funk somewhere.....sell out and so what!

[cursedvanity]

Woa, I'd never visualize his image anywhere near an advertisement.

That's really funny.

[Montag80]

This is the fucking interzone.

[chiapet1414]

LOL! Talk about irony! William Buroughs hawking shoes!

[preacherman86]

Seriously! How could that man be such a slutbag?

[teddave]

well if it gets the kid reading the old man. . .

"Listen all you boards, governments, syndicates, nations of the world,

And you, powers behind what filth deals consummated in what lavatory,

To take what is not yours ,

To sell out your sons forever ! To sell out the ground from unborn feet for ever ?"

[ortsed]

isn't there another WSB ad with The Revolution Will Not be Televised by Gil Scott Heron in the background? I think it's the sellout hat trick that bought lots of scag.

[AustinKronix]

this is insane...wtf?...ive never seen this before...wow...great!

[magicmatt96]

Oh My God!

[Chubachus]

very cool

[DannyMadScientist]

Rergardless of all the bickering here, being a big WSB fan, I find this commercial very... interesting and unexpected. Thanks for posting it, I really had no clue this existed.

[hiyori13]

I'm currently in an African village among some of the poor people, and actually have a first hand perspective about this, and actually trying to lift people out of poverty. Whatever Nike has done, they did not cause the poverty here, and if they bring the level up from 30cents a day to 70 cents a day, I would consider it an improvement and praise Nike for that. But of course, I would imagine you are doing something much more significan that whining and bitching on YouTube.

[richardnixon17]

Typical reactionary responses..."Well you know what they could be living in small box in middle of the road..." $1 is better than 30cents??? You know if you pull your collective heads from out of your asses and see the world from anothers perspective, you might actually develop something called compassion. $1 is NOT enough to sustain a bearable existence ANYWHERE. Read John Pilger's 'The New Ruler's of the World' (or watch the documentary)...

[hooterifica67]

The person who posted this IS NOT the one responsible for the commercial. Nowhere in the commercial does Will "sell out." His is a voice that was meant to be heard, and I'm sure this commercial, nomatter how much I hate Nikes, inspired a whole new generation of Burroughs readers.

[ckalbacher]

Someone accused Burroughs of bad taste hahaha thats pretty funny. Ever read 'Junkie?"

[earinsound]

what bad taste. burroughs must know those shoes are made by third world laborers getting paid $1 a day. what a sell-out to consumer, materialist culture (the same one his books ridiculed).

[hiyori13]

Yer right, like those laborers could have been making $100 a day elsewhere. $1 is better than $0.3, or even zero. And this coming from people like you comfortably lodged in the most materialistic environment in the world, I find your comment much more distasteful than this CM (which I kind of like). WSB ridiculed materialistic culture, but then his take on third world population was not a kind one, as seen in his Yage Letters etc.

[saltstikx]

"Like the US Pegler Fans say 'The trouble is Unions' They will still say that spitting blood from radiation sickness" and "What we need is a new Bolivar" "I wouldn't be surprised if I endet up with the liberal guerrilla". (Burroughs in "The Yage Letters") Dude, read the book. It's good.

[skatejason]

You're so brainwashed. It's crap like this that is ruining the left. Look. I used to live in Vietnam, and I visited a Nike "sweatshop". I also visited many other factories. The alternatives to the Nike factories. The non-Nike factories (the ones owned by rich corrupt Vietnamese) had much worse pay and conditions.

[earinsound]

$100/month is the average for a factory worker in Bangkok (where I lived for 6 yrs). Rent is about $50/month. Try supporting a family on that. Better to stay in one's own home on the family farm.

[hiyori13]

You know, that doesn't really say anything, because you don't mention what a dollar would buy in bangkok (that's a pretty rich area in a global standard) or whereever a Nike factory is. As skatejason correctly points out, considering the fact that the alternative is MUCH worse, and also considering the purchasing power of the remaining $50, this may not be so bad a deal. But you really need to look at the numbers carefully at this stage, which is a bit out of the scope of this comment section.

[darkwalter]

You gotta pay for your junk SOMEHOW. If I'd been Burroughs, I'd have taken the money.

[jozzmer]

doesnt he say its aheel of a shoe or some shit at the end? the nineties were fucked up

[pulpwriter]

thanks...been looking for this