Black Friday Library Spoof Gives Deal Almost Too Good To Be True

NEW YORK CITY — It’s the best Black Friday deal of the season: buy nothing, get all the books for free.

The New York Public Library is celebrating the shopping holiday of the year this season with an ad campaign every anti-capitalist, cheapskate and impoverished academic can enjoy.

"It's a Black Friday free for all at the library," the ads promise. "Buy none, get everything free!"

The fourth annual Black Friday ad spoofs promise library card-owners books that are "freer than ever" with “0% interest loans, plus free returns.”

WATCH THE ADVERT HERE

The ads also remind readers of a new development in the NYPL’s affordability policy, the elimination of late fees in October.

“The Library’s prices have always been fine,” the ad notes. “But now they’re fine free.”

About 1.3 million NYPL email subscribers received the “slightly-hysterical” ads at the dawn of the more-than-slightly-hysterical holiday on Friday, according to a press release.

This is the library’s fourth Black Friday spoof and they say, while it’s absolutely about book nerds poking fun at mass consumerism, it’s also about spreading the word about, well, words.

The library received more than 540 virtual library card submissions and 130 donations after releasing last year’s ads, according to the release.

Get your New York Public Library card here.

“The Library’s Black Friday ads have become a beloved annual tradition that we
look forward to every year,” said library president Tony Marx. “It’s a funny but important reminder that libraries are here and will always be here for whatever the public needs.”

The ads also include video of a very excited lion who, upon discovering the existence of library books, rushes into the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library.

“But don’t wait! These deals won’t last long,” the video concludes. “They’ll last forever!”

How the lion will flip the pages of his new books with paws remains an unsolved mystery.