The Limits of Liberation

Most underground newspapers are a garish amalgam of barnyard prose, bare bosoms, revolutionary tracts and sex-oriented want ads. Still, the 50 or so underground publications, including the Los Angeles Free Press, New York's East Village Other and Atlanta's Great Speckled Bird, cover a market beyond the reach of straight media. Some record companies, book publishers and clothing manufacturers have found it worthwhile to promote their wares in the underground press, often baiting their copy with radical themes.

Despite their strong editorial stand against all forms of censorship, the underground papers have just got together and imposed a censorship of their own. Advertisers no longer may plug their products with any form of the words "liberation" or "revolution." For example, promotions once accepted but now forbidden include Tad's ads for jeans, which were headlined "Do Something Revolting in Tads" and Truth & Soul Fashions ads, which note: "We learned something about revolution from Geronimo." The editors object that commercial use of the words demeans the causes that they represent. Moreover, says Robert England, president of Manhattan's Media A., a firm that sells space for most underground papers, "Co-opting the language shows a lack of creativity." Advertisers still have some options; for example, they can use as many four-letter obscenities as they like.

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