And so we continue Paris Hilton week here on FT with the initially a little bit amusing story that Banksy has doctored 500 Paris Hilton CD’s and slipped them surreptitiously into a number of major record stores in the country. Having slipped in a CD of his own making – well, probably a Dangermouse mix of some form – and added a satirical cover as you see to the right (except his version has Paris with her tits out), some Paris fans will be in for a shock. Or the charts will be. Or something. As usual Banksy’s point is a bit obvious, and has picked about the most obvious target he could think of.
So who is the target? Paris or her fans? Or his perception of Paris (spoilt rich kid) and her fans (celebrity obsessed teenage Heat readers)? But when you read into this perception, or at least my perception of his perception, it all seems a little bit mean spirited. The actual doctored cover, tits out (as can be seen here) is barely any different, and the song titles are not that far fetched. And anyone can do a bit of photoshopping: its what I did to make a clean version. So someone fetches it home, hears a probably competent mix-CD and then is told by the media that what they have is not a Paris Hilton album but a collectable piece of art. Not only that but one whose sale will count towards Paris’s chart position (Banksy duplicated the bar code after all). Suddenly you see that this is neither satirical or making anything like a point not obvious to everyone who knows who Paris Hilton is. Instead it is actually just good advertising for the album.
As for Paris? She might be a target, but this is a woman who starred in a show called “The Simple Life“, and is more than adept in tolerating the piss being taken out of her. And so therefore the real, actual target is the gullible media (one might think this story had been invented for The London Paper its timing is so good). And me of course cos I’ve just written about it. But then by wholly playing into the media’s hands, Banksy shows that lack of wit involved in this stunt, so ironically the real target of this hoax is himself.
Put it like this, don’t go on a shooting fish in a barrel trip with Banksy. He may end up shooting himself.