Bravo, Milwaukee.
Sorry, but it needs to be said: these ads are terrible.
For one, they’re not going to convince a single non-reader to pick up a book. Why? Because you can’t appeal to people by shaming them about their existing media habits, and because you especially don’t do so by arbitrarily pitting technologies against one another. It’s stupid, and condescending—not to mention hypocritical. Any librarian who’s worth her salt these days uses Facebook. She watches YouTube. She Tweets. The fact that a campaign so reactionary and tech-phobic has generated thousands of likes on Tumblr, the trendiest and most of-the-moment web platform we’ve got, is depressingly ironic.
Garbage like this is a surefire way to make anyone who’s even vaguely internet-savvy tune out immediately. It’ll also ensure that libraries make themselves irrelevant as fast as possible. (Thank goodness my local library has taken the complete opposite approach.)
Get your head in the game, Milwaukee. Right now you’re losing. Badly.
Jan 11, 2012