A first-time author has flyposted Penguin Random House to advertise his book – without its permission

Be More Pirate: Or How to Take On the World and Win is the non-fiction “survival guide to the 21st Century” by first-time author Sam Conniff Allende. Mirroring the book’s ethos of risking everything, breaking and then remaking the rules, Sam has disrupted the launch of his own book by flyposting a fluorescent advertisement the size of a bus over the headquarters of his publisher, Penguin Random House.

The eight-metre pink banner was plastered across Penguin Random House’s building on Vauxhall Bridge Road in London, with Sam gaining access to the building with “a group of like-minded rebels” by dressing in disguise as contractors undertaking an official installation.

“I’ve put a lot on the line this morning. This is my first book and I was warned by my colleagues and friends not to risk all I’ve worked so hard for, and the success the book is beginning to have,” remarks the book’s adventurous author. “But fuck that,” he continues, “today, amidst a local election that only highlights the lack of leadership on offer, I raise a rebel pirate flag over the Penguin Random House headquarters to encourage a generation I so believe in, who’ve been sold so short to challenge the status quo, question stale rules inherited from the past and rewrite new rules that will better determine the course of all our future.”

The stunt goes far beyond just wanton rule-breaking, however, it is a clever and calculated move to support and uphold everything Sam stands for. He goes on to point out, “I’ve heard Penguin Random House’s CEO, Tom Weldon, talk of bravery and the benefits of rule-breaking. In fact, I respect Tom so much, I’ve asked him to pay for the whole thing, he just doesn’t know it yet. But the fee he’s agreed to pay me for an upcoming event, is to the exact penny, the cost of the print of the advert I’ve installed.”