Guru Adrian

Guru Adrian

BACKGROUND

Guru Adrian is the "non-prophet" leader of Adrianetics, a "revolutionary philosophy of fun" that reached its peak of popularity in Australia during the mid-1980s. Adrianetics and Adrianism, the quasi-religion from whence it springs, are described in the movement's propaganda as an "ontological paradigm that helps us avoid becoming Groan Adults."

Much of Adrian's wisdom comes in the form of inverted logic and amusing verbal conundrums, such as: "Too many leaders have something to offer. Guru Adrian Has Nothing To Offer. You lack nothing. So you need Guru Adrian."

The Guru has always been shown in print with a drawn body and the face of a real child, leading to questions about his true identity (see Controversy, below).

In 1995, Fox and Hallmark began co-developing an animated show called "Guru Adrian" but the project was shelved after internal restructuring.

In 1999, Guru Adrian resurfaced as "The Naughtie Boy," described by Wired.com as "the mysterious figurehead" of Project Naughtie, a grassroots campaign to name the current decade the "Naughties."

A.K.A.

Guru Adrian is also known by the following monikers: The God of Fun. The Guru You Have When You're Not Having a Guru. The Guru of No Wave Consciousness. The Porpoise of Life.

LEGEND

Adrian Speshelperson was born in 1664 in Beecroft, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. For his seventh birthday, he received a Junior Science Kit and immediately set up a laboratory in the garden shed. Three days later Adrian "rose again from the shed" with the Secret of Eternal Youth. Realizing he was special, he ran to his mother and asked, "Mom, who am I?" "Gee, you are you, Adrian," she replied. Thus was born the boy we know today as Guru Adrian.

HISTORY

Adrian's public debut came in 1983 when he appeared as an incidental character in "Alan & Sharon," an Australian comic strip. The strip, created by David Art Wales, was a regular feature in a fanzine called Alan which was produced by left-leaning radio station Triple Jay. Adrian appeared as the leader of the Adrianetics movement (said to be a parody of Dianetics), dispensing wise advice to the comic's other characters. The Guru's sage-like maxims, such as "Having fun is half the fun" and "Savior Self," gained a rapid (and in some cases, rabid) following, with proponents who claimed to be Adrianists taking pilgrimages into the Beecroft woods in search of the cave where Adrian was said to live.

The Guru's popularity grew in 1985 with the introduction of the full-color, full-page "Guru Adrian Funpage," also written and drawn by Wales, in Countdown magazine.

CONTROVERSY

In 1984 an unfortunate incident occurred after a fan spray-stenciled a series of 28 images of Adrian's face onto a Sydney shopfront and local police mistook the face for that of a missing child. On May 23, The Glebe & Western Weekly now known as The Inner-West Weekly, a Sydney newspaper, ran a front page story under the headline "CHILLING DISCOVERY: SHOPFRONT PAINTINGS RESEMBLE MISSING 7 YEAR-OLD." The article said the images were "devilish looking" and that detectives were investigating the case. The investigation was rapidly concluded after Wales was interviewed by authorities.

In 1989, famed British advertising agency Lowe Howard-Spink was accused of basing the look and concept for a potato crisp ad campaign on the Guru Adrian Funpages. Where the Guru was known as "a 300 year-old boy who lives in a cave and discovered the Secret of Eternal Youth," the agency's advertisements for KP Crunchies featured a character named Chairman Kevin who was described as "a 307 year-old boy who spent the first years of his life in a coal bunker trying to find his true self." Stories about the alleged plagiarism appeared in The Face, iD magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Ad News before the campaign was pulled. Lowe Howard-Spink's response: "No comment."

The 2008 Mike Meyers film "The Love Guru" features a scene where the guru character unveils a large sign that reads "GEE YOU ARE YOU" (i.e. "G.U.R.U."). This line originally appeared in Guru Adrian Funpage #3 in Countdown magazine in 1986.

CREATOR

Guru Adrian's creator, artist and businessman David Wales (a.k.a. David Art Wales, David Arthur Wales) now runs branding consultancy Ministry of Culture in New York. He launched website 'Cinelan' with filmmaker Morgan Spurlock in 2008.