Anonymous Patron writes “What do Mao Zedong, J. Edgar Hoover, Batgirl and Casanova have to do with the new Minneapolis Central Library?
They’re part of an edgy new ad campaign from the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library — edgier than the organization even expected. It has generated heated e-mails from as far away as Taiwan, and the campaign hasn’t even been formally launched.
Critics say that promoting the library with images of Mao and Hoover is inappropriate and offensive. But the creators say that misinformation spread through Web logs produced confusion about the ads’ true content.
The Star Tribune Has More“
The Power of LisNews?
The Star Tribune states that all the national and international email protests about the ad started when another local Minneapolis newspaper, the Skyway News published an article about it…
They seem to think that librarians far and wide found out about this from a Minneapolis newspaper….I don’t think so…
I think the news about the ads was communicated to the universe via LisNews and by comments
and reaction to the LisNews story via blogs
and emails we forwarded to colleagues…because the story appeared HERE on May 13th…
I think LisNews was the primary source of the global communication on this story…not the Minneapolis newspaper.
Can those of you who spread the word on this story comment about where you read it first?
Re:The Power of LisNews?
I first saw it on Jessamyn’s blog.
She actually mentioned it quite awhile ago and recently followed it up even.
(Overestimating) The Power of LisNews
The Strib article says that bloggers found out about the Mao ad from Strib columnist James Lileks’ (April 26) blog entry. “Lileks’ comments along with the textless pictures of Mao and the library lit up the blogosphere like a pinball machine.” That’s where I first heard about it, and Jessamyn links to Lileks on her blog. BTW, he posted a parody of the MPL ad campaign a couple weeks later.
Re:(Overestimating) The Power of LisNews 🙂
Damn you Brian, I think LISNews was the primary source of the global communication on not just on this story, but on ALL stories!
Re:(Overestimating) The Power of LisNews
Well…okay If LisNews was not the first to break the story and if Lileks was…I still think that librarians in Minneapolis probably forwarded his article far and wide to alert our peers of this major mistake. How clueless was the ad agency? And how ridiculous is it for the “Friends” guy to say “testimonials from librarians” did not work. Instead of finding a more creative way of presenting our work and the ways that people use libraries, he gets some idiot kid to visually affiliate the library with dictators, crossdressing tyrants, a comic strip
bimbo and some promiscuous fool.
Re:(Overestimating) The Power of LisNews
Personally, I like the campaign. It says that libraries are a place for the open exchange of ideas – all ideas.
Also, hearing that Minneapolis is the home of the worlds most loveable librarians makes me want to take a trip up North. 🙂
Re:(Overestimating) The Power of LisNews
So the campaign was YOUR idea?
No one but the clueless idiots who were involved in this fiasco would praise such a blatant misrepresentation of libraries or librarians.