Dallas Bookstore Gets People to Read Literature by Turning It Into Clickbait

'Gulliver's Travels' as a clickbait headline. Image credit: Wild Detectives/Facebook
'Gulliver's Travels' as a clickbait headline. Image credit: Wild Detectives/Facebook / 'Gulliver's Travels' as a clickbait headline. Image credit: Wild Detectives/Facebook
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A bookstore in Dallas, Texas has finally found an excusable use for clickbait. As Adweek reports, Wild Detectives is posting headlines to their Facebook page that spin classic works of literature as trashy viral content. When followers click the links, they’re led to full texts of public domain pieces posted on Medium.

Dubbed Litbaits, the campaign uses the questionable strategy for a worthwhile purpose. Posts include the headlines "British guy dies after selfie gone wrong" for The Picture of Dorian Grey, "When it’s OKAY to slut shame single mothers" for The Scarlett Letter, and "You’ll never guess what happened to this Kansas teen after tornado destroys her home" for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Wild Detectives launched the initiative on National Read a Book Day on September 6. As the below video shows, the results were impressive: Their Facebook page saw a 150 percent boost in engagement and a 14,000 percent traffic jump. The allure of clickbait is powerful, but this is one case where the temptation to click pays off.

[h/t Adweek]