Singapore-based Popular Holdings gained popularity for the wrong reasons

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Nanjing bookstore attacked for 'naked reading' campaign
Staff Reporter 2013-10-26 09:01



A nude model searches for a book on a high shelf in this promotional poster for the store. (Photo/CFP)



A large cardboard cut-out at the Nanjing store. (Photo/CFP)

A bookstore in Nanjing, capital of eastern China's Jiangsu province, has been accused of poor taste after it used posters featuring topless models as part of a campaign to promote reading, reports the state-run China News Service.

The posters showed topless models standing in front of bookshelves or sitting on chairs reading with their chests strategically obscured by books.

The store, a branch of Singapore-based Popular Holdings, was blasted for "corrupting minors" and using gimmicks to attract customers. The store said the posters were part of a campaign that the company was holding in both Nanjing and Shanghai entitled "Reading naked brings your soul closer to books" which aims to show that reading can take different forms. People should strip off all the ornamentation of daily life in order to read. "There is no limitations to reading, it penetrates into every area of life," the company said.

Some readers doubted whether people would read a book just because the naked young women were reading them, and questioning what the relation was between reading and being naked.Others said the bookstore has sullied its reputation by using such a blatant gimmick. The store's spokesperson said traditional print bookstores have been struggling to boost sales through discounts but to no avail. He said that only by trying to get people interested in reading would they be able to secure sales and the future of the industry. He added that the styles and slogans used in the posters are positive and not pornographic.

Similar marketing campaign were deployed at a book fair in Hong Kong in 2011. Models were used to promote books in and about the fair. The fair received heavy criticism for this, as some of the models revealed a lot of skin and stole the limelight by licking ice cream provocatively and even taking a public bubble bath.




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