Written by Ken Garland in
London in
1964.
Adbusters magazine, finding it timely and applicable 3
decades later, reprinted it in
1998.
WE, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers
and students who have been brought up in a world in which
the techniques and apparatus of advertising have
persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative,
effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have
been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief,
applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and
imagination to sell such things as: Cat food, stomach
powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste,
aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets,
fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons,
pull-ons, and slip-ons. By far the greatest time and effort of
those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these
trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our
national prosperity.
In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched stream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the
world.
We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer
advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of
the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities
in favour of the more useful and lasting forms of
communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick
merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and
that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile
purposes. With this in mind, we propose to share our
experience and opinions, and to make them available to
colleagues, students and others who may be interested.
In 2000, Adbusters updated the manifesto. The point of First Things First Manifesto 2000 was to provoke and challenge designers to turn their talent away from the service of mindless consumerism.
In 2014, Cole Peters released an updated version for designers, developers, creative technologists, and multi-disciplinary communicators involved in creating for the Web.