Promotion Stunt Leads to Bookstore

People wandering Amsterdam's main shopping area last fall came across a ribbon winding through the city. The ribbon turned out to be a 650-foot-long bookmark that led the curious to Selexyz, one of Holland's biggest bookstore chains.

The bookmark ended on the ground floor of the store where the book, “Nieuwsgierigheid,” which is Dutch for curious, was just debuting.

Communications company They, whose partner, Dr. Roland van der Vorst, is the book's author, dreamed up the promo. In the book, van der Vorst argues that the art of seducing people, whether they are customers, voters or viewers, is to make them curious.

In a related promo, They created stationery that had the top-right corner folded over to entice the curious. When people flipped up the corner, they read news of the new book and where to buy it.

One street cleaner who came upon the long bookmark wasn't sure what to make of it. He followed it, arrived at the bookstore, asked about the pink line and decided to let the fabric bookmark lie.