Poet John Tottenham launches campaign against the word “awesome” in LA

John Tottenham, a British original poet, has launched a campaign to stamp out the word “awesome” claiming that it is “bogus”.

John Tottenham has created bumper stickers for his movement and is in the process of designing a t-shirt.

The poet now lives in Los Angeles and works at the Stories bookshop in Echo Park.

John Tottenham told the Los Angeles Times that saying the word within earshot is like “waving a crucifix in a vampire’s face”.

Local businesses have reportedly stuck the signs in their windows in support of John Tottenham’s campaign.

The mission statement reads: “Please try to restrict usage of this nauseatingly ubiquitous (and by now, completely meaningless) superlative to those of us who are under the age of 12.”

John Tottenham performed an “Anti-Awesome oration” along with some of his own poetry last month.

The word has its roots in Californian surf culture. Urbandictionary.com describes it as “something Americans use to describe everything… It is one the three words which make up most American sentences”.