I can’t be the only one that thinks these are awful.

I’m not one to bash other people’s marketing efforts; I think it is extremely admirable that ALA got hip to marketing before everyone else, but i feel like they are beating a dead horse with both “READ” and “@ your library”.

It is time for ALA to re-think their marketing. There is one rule in marketing: Know thy audience. I don’t care how many skateboarders and rappers they slap on those READ posters, there is no way they are ever going to be cool.

Libraries are hard pills to swallow for millennials, this campaign helps alienate them even more. If ALA is serious about getting the next generation into libraries, they need to breath some fresh life into their marketing and come at it with a different perspective. This axiom stands for all institutions; I know for a fact that some of you out there using the READ campaign as some part of your marketing.

Something that ALA hasn’t grasped is that at this stage in the game it is more important for libraries to market to their specific audiences rather than to work toward creating a cohesive image for libraries as a whole.

Speaking as a “millennial” (although I hate to admit it) your job as a marketer is to let me know why I should bother stepping foot in a library when I have the world at my fingertips on the internet, telling me to READ isn’t going to cut it.