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Tracey Emin is to design a Collector’s Edition bag for the second Books Are My Bag campaign.
The artist said she wanted to design a bag especially for the campaign because “it upsets me there aren’t enough bookshops” on the high street.
The second wave of the campaign will launch on Thursday 9th October, the day Booksellers Association has claimed as Super Thursday this year –marking the busiest day in the publishing calendar when the most books are released in the run up to Christmas.
The campaign will culminate in Big Bookshop Parties in bookshops around the country on Saturday October 11th.
Emin said: “I travel a lot and the thought of getting on a plane or a train without a book would just drive me insane. A few years ago I thought I was being smart and I bought a kindle…I have never used it. To me there is nothing more pleasurable then turning the pages of a book and realising that this book for a certain period of time is going to become my best friend.” She added: “It upsets me that there aren’t enough bookshops.”
The campaign was launched to consumers in October last year, devised by the advertising agency, M & C Saatchi, pro bono, under the direction of its Founding Partner, James Lowther. It is sponsored jointly by The Booksellers Association and The Publishers Association, with Dame Gail Rebuck (Chair of Penguin Random House) and Patrick Neale (BA President) as joint chairs. Last year’s event was backed by high profile celebrities such as Lily Cole, Nigel Slater and prime minister David Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband.
Rebuck said: “We are delighted to have won the support of the wonderful Tracey Emin for this year’s campaign. The exclusive, collectable new bag design, which will sit alongside the existing iconic bag, helps us to reinforce the campaign message that bookshops are exciting places. Books Are My Bag offers the publishing and bookselling industry the unique opportunity to come together and celebrate all that is good about the high street.”
She added that last year bookshops reported a sales increase of 18.5%, and a footfall increase of 17.5% on the day of the BAMB consumer launch.