[Click here to view the video in this article]
Readers of the print edition of The New York Times on 22 October would have noticed that pages nine and ten were curiously blank, save for a single URL at the bottom of the second page that reads wordsarelife.com.
The blank space was actually an ad for an upcoming 20th Century Fox film adaptation of the best-selling novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and the URL leads to a basic info site for the film. Set in Nazi Germany, it is about a girl who finds solace in stealing books and sharing them with others.
Julie Rieger, Senior Vice President of Media at 20th Century Fox, said the ad was meant to recreate the experience of the main character for readers. “In our marketing world today, we have this give, give, give attitude. Click here, call this number, get more content... But with this, we actually wanted to take something away, to make people feel what it would be like to live in a world without words, if only for a moment. That’s how our character Liesel exists when we first meet her in the movie.”
The decision to run the ad solely in the iconic, venerable paper was a strategic move as it made people wonder what the world would be like without words or The New York Times.
The simple, eye-catching ad had readers and media outlets abuzz, proving that sometimes less is more.
Watch the trailer below for The Book Thief, which opens 15 November.
[via Fast Company and Advertising Age, images via The Book Thief]
Readers of the print edition of The New York Times on 22 October would have noticed that pages nine and ten were curiously blank, save for a single URL at the bottom of the second page that reads wordsarelife.com.
The blank space was actually an ad for an upcoming 20th Century Fox film adaptation of the best-selling novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and the URL leads to a basic info site for the film. Set in Nazi Germany, it is about a girl who finds solace in stealing books and sharing them with others.
Julie Rieger, Senior Vice President of Media at 20th Century Fox, said the ad was meant to recreate the experience of the main character for readers. “In our marketing world today, we have this give, give, give attitude. Click here, call this number, get more content... But with this, we actually wanted to take something away, to make people feel what it would be like to live in a world without words, if only for a moment. That’s how our character Liesel exists when we first meet her in the movie.”
The decision to run the ad solely in the iconic, venerable paper was a strategic move as it made people wonder what the world would be like without words or The New York Times.
The simple, eye-catching ad had readers and media outlets abuzz, proving that sometimes less is more.
Watch the trailer below for The Book Thief, which opens 15 November.
[via Fast Company and Advertising Age, images via The Book Thief]