Ad Agency punks the Tea Party in Troy, Michigan

[lame54]

Most brilliant ad campaign ever. Really. Watch the video for the story.

Via MediaBistro:

When Troy Library was at the brink of being forced to shut its doors, Leo Burnett decided to “take back” the podium from the Tea Party, changing the conversation from an issue of taxes to an issue of book burning. Hey, if you’ve ever seen Field of Dreams, you know that nothing riles up Midwesterners like the threat/promise of a book burning/ban. It turns out Leo’s reverse psychology with the “Book Burning Party,” was quite effective, causing local press to believe that the planned fire-y celebration was actually a real event. To quote one employee of the library, “(When I first learned of the movement), I thought ‘This is some bad attempted satire,’ but to spend money on signs for a committee, that’s not somebody forming it as a joke.” Yes, Leo even had the library convinced, but the employee quoted in that article, Phillip Kwik, didn’t find this bit of “satire” very funny once that hoax was revealed.Regardless, the bizarre campaign took off on social media, finding press from the Library Journaland the Detroit Free Press.

After the dust settled, 342 percent of predicted voters showed up at the polls, and Troy Library remains open. Whether you credit Leo Burnett’s campaign for the victory, or you find their actions misguided and “appalling” as Kwik argues, those are the results.

[JNelson6563]

1. Where I come from we call this "Fucking brilliant"

I'm from St. Clair Shores, s short drive to Troy.

This is how we in MI (and everywhere else for that matter) need to defeat these extremists, by being more clever than their corporate masters.

Julie

[salin]

2. excellent video!

[Maynar]

3. Absolutely brilliant.

+1000

BRAVO!

[Dustlawyer]

4. This is one of the best things I have seen! It is all about perspective. Why should we accept

that we have to go backwards!

[syberlion]

5. Brilliant, simply brilliant

I agree, we must incorporate this type of thinking into the general election... We have brains and compassion on our side.

[RedCappedBandit]

6. Really drives the point home..

people need to get out and VOTE

[LiberalLovinLug]

7. this is EXACTLY the kind of tactics Democrats should be using.

They refuse to fight back in any conventional sense...(at least not hard enough). They allow the GOP to frame the discussion. They are continuously RE-acting instead of being PRO-active. So much so that a uber wealthy plastic elitist Mormon who has taken flip-flopping on issues to a whole 'nother level, up to even polling with a President that has fought a depression back, reduced taxes for the middle class, and caught Bin Laden. In any other country, without the level of Corporate Control, Obama would have a cake walk.

I'd love to see more of this. But unfortunately its going to have to happen at local levels and unsanctioned by the DNC or DLC. Liberals must use what God gave us, wit intelligence, humour to help people in the dark understand what's really going on with their country.

[ohheckyeah]

8. LOL....

fucking brilliant.

[Zalatix]

9. Corporations use those tricks to screw us. And worse.

[Faygo Kid]

10. I visited the Troy Library every week, 1984-87. Great stuff.

My daughter was a youngster then. I still remember every aisle. A really great community library, although Troy has gone wingnut since then.

[VenusRising]

11. That was nothing short of genius.

We need more of this. I think that people want to do good, but lack the clarity of the issues beyond a few talking points.

[tosh]

24. ...

[xxqqqzme]

12. Maybe even 'vile'.

Hell yes, their tactics are vile. Gotta fight fire w/ fire - pun intended.

[zeemike]

13. Beat them at their own fucking game...

[Gothmog]

14. Great job

This story made me smile. Great job. We need to figure out how to duplicate this as to Medicare and Social Security

[WorseBeforeBetter]

15. Excellent use of Facebook and Twitter.

Wish North Carolina had Leo Burnett during the recent Amendment One/marriage equality debacle. Still plenty of debacles left, though -- fracking 15 miles from a nuclear plant, sea-level rise, public schools, public transportation...

Congrats, Troy, I'm thrilled your library was saved. And that Teabaggers were DEFEATED.

[noel711]

16. Hire these guys to run the Obama campaign..

We seriously need to change the conversation in a big way.

[elleng]

35. ABSOLUTELY!

These guys, Howard Dean and George Lakoff could do a great job for the entire Democratic Party, thru the country, imo!

[DiverDave]

17. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101734800

[Flying Squirrel]

18. maybe so, but

I never got to see the story because my phone won`t play video and that`s the only internet i have.

[CJCRANE]

19. Different forum.

It's okay to post the same story in different forums. You usually get a different take on it.

[JHB]

27. That just means we get to rec it twice!

K&R

[matt819]

20. I've been thinking about taking a break from DU for a while

Election and politics burnout.

But links and stories like this? I think I'll continue to pop in regularly.

[Auggie]

21. Lesson: don't fuck with agency creatives

[emald]

22. intelligent and wonderful response

It is about time that message be taken back. Screw taxes, let's talk about what happens without proper levels of taxation. Just what would Grover Norquists (sp? and I don't care to look it up) utopia society look like? When you drown the government in the bathtub what happens next?
Well, anyone can get the idea, except my party.

[SaB2012]

23. You know, I live in the Midwest

I can honestly say that I've never in my life seen anyone call for a "good, old-fashioned book burnin'."

[ret5hd]

25. So?

[SaB2012]

29. "So" buttons

Broad-brushing is wrong. Not all Midwesterners are book-burners. Not all Southerners are Klansmen or members of Fred Phelps inbred family. Not all people in Seattle are pot-smoking, coffee-drinking hipsters. Not all Californians are surfers who say "Duuuuuude!" The vast majority of Midwesterners are decent people who abhor burning books.

[eaglesfanintn]

37. I think that was the point

They used that as a way to get people, ahem, fired up about it. Knowing that the all those decent people that abhor burning books would be outraged.
Personally, I think it's a f*cking brilliant campaign. Those teabaggers turn everything into "government over reach" or "taxes" or some other talking point instead of dealing with the actual issues. These folks did the same thing in their own way and, in the long run, brought the conversation back to where it belonged.

[SaB2012]

42. At the expense of broad-brushing Midwesterners.

Good on them that it worked this time. Next time, though, it might backfire.

[AlbertCat]

47. Not all Southerners are Klansmen or members of Fred Phelps inbred family.

Fred Phelps' inbred family is from Topeka, Kansas. That's not the South, now, is it?

[SaB2012]

49. Depends on where you live

To me, it's the South.

[Hestia]

26. And?

[SaB2012]

30. See above

[Romulox]

36. Not to mention that Troy is a upper-middle class community in a solidly BLUE state.

People LOVE to hate on places like Michigan. It just FEELS good, to them.

[Delphinus]

28. Way, way cool.

This type of thinking, of bringing the conversation or the topic back to its original purpose, is something I could stand to learn.

[SaB2012]

31. It was clever and all, but...

Saying "A vote against the library is like a vote to burn books" is a bit over the top for my tastes. It's like saying "A vote against [funding for] the police is a vote to legalize murder" or "A vote against the fire department is a vote to allow people to commit arson with impunity." That's my opinion. Take it as you will. Just please don't flip-out over it.

[spooky3]

32. But your examples make it clear why the ad is NOT over the top.

If a community can't afford police, then murderers can act with little fear that their crimes will be investigated and that they will be caught and convicted.

If a community can't afford firefighters, ditto for arsonists.

Without sufficient money to prevent crime/arson and to address crime/fires when they occur, saying you have police or fire protection is completely baseless. What's the difference in OUTCOME between telling people it is illegal to commit murder but nothing will happen if they do it, versus telling them it's legal?

While you may argue that it is a matter of degree, e.g., too few police but still some are employed, in the case of the library, if it is shut down entirely, people have no access to library books. It is the same outcome as if the books had been burned. So there is no matter of degree for the library.

[SaB2012]

43. You just misrepresented my analogies.

It's late and I had a frustrating day at work and I'm not really in the mood to explain it to you fully right now. I'll leave it at this: my analogy of legalizing murder (i.e. making it no longer a crime) is not the same as murderers getting away with their crime.

[spooky3]

48. Why don't you get some rest and then try to understand (and if you do, then explain) it?

"Misrepresenting" is NOT what I did, at all.

The primary *outcome* of legalizing murder is the same as the primary outcome of not enforcing a law. In both cases, murders are committed with impunity. There is no point in having a law if a community ignores it or refuses to fund enforcement.

[Brother Buzz]

33. Don't flip-out over it, Skippy

"The vast majority of Midwesterners are decent people who abhor burning books". That's a fact, Jack, and I suggest you acknowledge the ad agency hit a home run and pressed a few buttons on their way around the bases.

[SaB2012]

45. In the end, they'll have an asterisk next to their statistics.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

34. But it worked. That's all that matters. nt

[SaB2012]

46. Really?

So we can just excuse any sort of tactic as long as it works? "That's all that matters."

[HiPointDem]

41. says the person who said the kkk = a social reform group

[SaB2012]

44. Hello, straw man!

So now you're resorting to trolling other threads I'm involved in with unrelated issues. Fan-fricking-tastic. Are you going to keep stalking me? Please let me know so I can alert a moderator or whatever. Thanks.

[LanternWaste]

50. you call them 'unrelated issues'. I call them' issues of credibility'.

you call them 'unrelated issues'. I call them' issues of credibility'.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other...

[RebelOne]

38. That's a good example of reverse psychology. n/t

[Spazito]

39. Excellent, very creative!

I hope this kind of action happens more and more often!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

40. FUCKING BRILLIANT!