This is the cover artwork for the new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal for Plague Lovers by Jenny Saville.But you won't be seeing it in Sainsburys, Asda or Tesco anytime soon. It's been deemed so offensive by these British supermarkets that they are censoring the cover with a plain black sleeve. Sainsburys reckon "that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate... As such, the album will be sold in a sleeve provided by the publisher."
Personally, I think it's a painting that makes you feel slightly uneasy at best but inappropriate? Certainly not. As James Dean Bradfield points out, there are far more offensive images in the magazine and gaming aisles (FHM, Nuts and Grand Theft Auto spring to mind).
"You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out," Bradfield said. "We're not going to censor it or anything ... It is what it is."
You can read the Guardians article on this here.
i love jenny saville's work - it's so stricking. funny how an album cover causes such furore when porn is regularly sold in public places.
ReplyDeleteCome on. this is clearly PR bullshit! do you really think that these supermarkets a worried that the cover is offensive? Or did they all just agree to stock it in the phony censored sleeve (which will no doubt become collectable) in order to help whip up a bit of press and shift a few million units? This story is almost as lame as the recent one about the pet shop boys being asked by PETA to change their name to 'The Rescue Home Boys' (just as their album came out).
ReplyDeleteHowdo Dicky. This could well be a bit of a PR do, but the supermarkets are just stupid enough for it to be possible, let us know if you find out.
ReplyDeletePS we've got the 'flat-pack-sexbot' print up in Sell! Towers now, looks great, ta.
I'm inclined to agree with Dick that this is likely to be a big publicity stunt - as we know nothing markets a product better than a bit of controversy. But the only thing I find offensive about it is those damn backwards R's!
ReplyDeleteHa ha. The backwards 'R's are realy, like, 'subversive'.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I became very synical about all this stuff since reading 'Flat Earth News'
Nice to hear that the print is up. There are a load more screenprints on the way. I will keep you posted.