Calgary library ads target grocery shoppers

Calgary's public libraries are trying to catch the attention of supermarket shoppers by placing advertisements right in with the bananas and pastrami.

New library ads have made their way into the produce and deli departments of10 Real Canadian Superstores across the city. The slogan for the campaign is "Everything you're into," and the advertisements feature lines such as "from barbecue to bull riding" and "from ham to Hamlet."

It's a unique campaign, said April Ganger, who works with the Calgary Public Library's marketing department.

"We were trying to have that guerilla impact," she said.

"People's perceptions of public libraries is really solid and really hard to break. And we're working toward that, to try and break that. To make you re-think your library, make you think that this could be a fun place to come. And that you'd put it on your top list, and it would be something you would do. It's not just for quiet study and researching anymore. "

A first for Canadian grocery stores

Similar ads are running on buses, in washroom stalls and on the library's vans. The Calgary Public Library has a $35,000 budget for advertising.

At the Signal Hill Superstore, one shopper said the campaign caught her eye. The ad she noticed read: "Everything you're into. From cream pie recipes to Curious George"

"It's an ad for the public library in the bananas. It's a little bizarre," she said.

Superstore was excited to be part of the innovative advertising campaign, said spokesman Craig Ware.

"We liked the ability to raise awareness of this great community resource in a completely new way," Ware said.

He predicts this campaign, which he calls a first for Canadian grocery stores, won't be the last.