Book Burning Party
Safeguarding American Families - Troy Public Library
Issue 24 | September 2012
Agency
Leo Burnett Detroit
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Peter McHugh Creative Director/Copywriter: Glen Hilzinger Creative Director/Art Director: Bob Veasey Copywriter: Rob Thiemann, Mike Davis Creative Technologist: John McClaire Art Director: Derek Tent Senior Producer: Jennie Hochthanner Creative Services Director: Tony Booth
Other Credits
Pluto Post, Birmingham, MI
Date
2011
Background
Due to a struggling economy, Troy, Michigan could no longer afford its library, so it scheduled a vote for a 0.7% tax increase.
The referendum aroused the Tea Party, a well-funded anti-tax group, who lobbied hard against the proposed increase in funds.
Supporters of the library had to get voters not to see the referendum as being about money but about the services the library provided.
Idea
With only $3,500(US) and just six weeks until the vote, supporters of the library posed as a clandestine political group. They posted signs around Troy that said, “Vote to close Troy library Aug 2, Book Burning Party Aug 5.”
Their signs invited people to a Facebook page, and they added Twitter, Foursquare, flyers and more to help drive engagement around the core idea of burning all the books.
The campaign grew from local to international news as outcry over the idea of burning the library’s books drowned out the opposition and galvanized support for the library.
Results
In the first two weeks, with less than $100 in paid media, 50,000 visits to the Facebook page were generated. With an audience of 80,000 Troy residents, the campaign generated over 650,000 impressions from Facebook and Twitter alone, not to mention those generated by Flickr, Youtube, media coverage and countless blogs. In the end, not only did the Yes voters get out of their pools and in to the polls, they turned out at levels 342% greater than projected. The library won by a landslide.
Our Thoughts
This campaign is a year old and we really prefer publishing more recent stories than this. But the Editorial Committee all agreed it is one of the most inspiring case histories in Directory 24. Firstly, it has a good old-fashioned advertising idea at the heart of it. To say the opposite of what you mean. As Paul Arden used to say, ‘Whatever you want to do, do the opposite’ because it works.
The second thing is that it is based on a genuine insight. For most middle-class people, the idea of burning books takes their minds straight to Germany in the 1930’s, to Stalin’s purges and to any number of other extreme moments in history.
It is so horrible a thought, the people of Troy simply could not ignore it.
Lastly, its use of peer-to-peer communications across Facebook was brilliant. They knew the idea would spread like wildfire, and it did.