Regardless of how many advertisements you see, commercials you watch or billboards you drive by, nothing beats word of mouth. Chances are, you will be more or less inclined to try a new store, restaurant, etc. after you’ve talked to a friend. It could be someone you’ve known your whole life or someone you’ve just met. Recommendations from a real person will always boost whatever company is in question.
Now, how can that concept extend to other types of advertising? It’s simple: have a book burning party. Now, before you get your book spines in a twist, let me explain that there’s no actual party. But you freaked out a little, didn’t you?
A library in Troy, Michigan was about to close and instead of taking the insult lying down, someone had the bright idea of calling attention to the problem. Not just any kind of attention. Righteous indignation. The kind of attention that rallies people to call for the wrath of God and the thunderbolts of Zeus. They advertised for a book burning party. Around the middle of the campaign, they explain that the party was a hoax and that a vote to close the library was like a vote to burn books. Needless to say, the library was saved.
Now, why did this method work? Because it touched on something deeply imbedded in the citizens of this nation: freedom of speech. Book burning is something that isn’t tolerated by most people. It was a surefire way of rallying the people of the world around one little library.
And it worked.
