It’s not the prettiest graffiti in the world but the person responsible deserves huge kudos for the way in which they manipulated the original message.
Libraries in general are far too reserved to resort to spraying graffiti on public buildings in an effort to attract new customers but people passing through Strabane could be forgiven for thinking that there is a guerrilla marketing underway for the local library in the Tyrone town.
As the library will be no doubt keen to point out, however, the untidy scrawling of the message ‘Join the Library’ on a small building in the town has nothing to do with them and is instead how one clever artist managed to alter a message that previously read ‘Join the IRA’ into something far less provocative and far more educational.
Got to admire the Strabane kid with the cultural conscience who altered ‘Join the IRA’ graffiti to this! pic.twitter.com/MoyvyvaaGZ
— Brian McGilloway (@BrianMcGilloway) September 15, 2013
The picture was posted on Twitter by teacher and writer Brian McGilloway yesterday and has been retweeted over 2,000 times since. Since then, the same man was able to reveal that the genius behind the amended graffiti was one Chris McLaughlin, while the Strabane library also popped into the conversation to express their delight at the free advertising.
It took 2k+ RTs, but the man behind the Strabane Join the Library recruitment drive has revealed himself. @Nostrildamus27 – take a bow! — Brian McGilloway (@BrianMcGilloway) September 16, 2013
@BrianMcGilloway @Nostrildamus27 we’ve never had a better advertising campaign. — Strabane Library (@StrabaneLibrary) September 16, 2013
@StrabaneLibrary @BrianMcGilloway Maybe you can clear my overdue fines now then. 🙂
— Chris McLaughlin (@Nostrildamus27) September 16, 2013
Good work all round.
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