Find Jay-Z’s Memoir at a Bookstore, or on a Billboard

Jeff Ferrell recently sent me an article from The New York Times that reports on an unprecedented advertising campaign within the book publishing world. It seems instead of flashy imagery and excessive posturing, entire pages from Jay-Z's new memoir will adorn the streets on advertising structures such as billboards, bus shelters and phonebooths. While this ad stunt is intended to sell books and not simply provide literary content to the streets, I obviously still have some issues with it. That said, considering Jay-Z's target audience is probably of the younger persuasion and not the bookish type, (I could be wrong) I do think this is an interesting campaign. There is also something simple and poetic about reading a page out of a book completely out of context that I like. (we tried to provide a similar literary oddity with the National Bestseller project in 2009) I do hope that advertising does not continue in this direction as it further blurs the lines between public and private while still condoning private use of public space but for the meantime, enjoy it!

VIA The New York Times

PRINT advertising by publishing houses tends to boast about books that are being bold and original, but that can seldom be said of the ads themselves, which generally consist of ho-hum photographs of the book and author, a brief description of the subject matter and laudatory blurbs. [More Here]