This campaign gives classic books a makeover with steamy romance-style covers

A new campaign from Brazilian publisher E-galaxia aims to boost reading of classic books by giving them a whole new look, with covers akin to steamy romances. According to E-galaxia and its agency, Africa, on average people in Brazil only read two books a year. However, there are some keen readers out there: the titles topping the Kindle chart there are erotic romances with suggestive covers that typically feature bare-chested, muscular men. Therefore, the campaign took classic titles, like Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and gives them a similar look. Having analyzed the data about covers that sell, the agency's redesigns include not only steamy artwork but suggestive pull quotes and editing of the font size in the titles to highlight particular words—you can guess what happened with "Moby Dick" and well, the "Gray" in the Wilde title was a gift, really, given the success of E.L. James's "Fifty Shades" series. The redesigned books also featured in an outdoor campaign. While you might say it's sexist to plaster male torsos all over the covers of classic e-books, the results are revealing: according to Africa, the campaign has seen the chosen collection of classic novels rocket up the Kindle chart—although whether people bought them by accident has not been revealed.

This campaign gives classic books a makeover with steamy romance-style covers

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