Open Book Toronto conducts awareness campaign
By Adnews Staff
Open Book Toronto is concluding a four-week campaign intended to raise awareness of the organization and its support of Canadian independent book publishers. The campaign, developed by Taxi of Toronto, consisted of fake ads for non-existent products. A sticker attached to each ad asks the viewer if this is the only reading they're doing and directs them to the website <http://www.openbooktoronto.com>. Some of the ads displayed Web addresses for their fake products, which lead to fake websites that then redirected visitors to the Open Book site. Media used included street posters and subway ads. The campaign also included stickers on bathroom graffiti reading, "Is this the only local poetry you are reading?" Now magazine also participated in the campaign by printing fake content with stickers attached. "We knew we were trying to connect with a group who don't want to be marketed to," said Amy Logan Holmes, executive director of the organization. "Most of them were either completely unaware or indifferent to Toronto's books and authors. We needed to do something different that would wake them up and get them excited about what was being written locally."