Karl Rove’s Book Gets Swiftboated By Amazon Bestseller List Competition

The race for the top spot on Amazon’s best-selling non-fiction book list just turned dirty. Rework authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson were thrilled, but not satisfied, that their book is currently in the #4 spot on the list (through previously taking the bronze). So, in brainstorming ways to publicize their irreverent career guide, they turned to the author of the book above them on the list and asked themselves, “What would Karl Rove do?”

The answer? Question your competitor’s patriotism in a somber, urgent campaign ad, titled “America’s Book.” Fried explains on his company’s blog:

We wondered how we could compete with Rove on the bestseller list. We don’t have the luxury of friends in high places. We don’t have national TV exposure. So how we could we be Rovian and beat him at his own game? One thing immediately came to mind: An attack ad.

The result is an ad so fine-tuned to Rove’s political frequency that, if you didn’t speak English, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a joke. Among Courage and Consequence‘s many anti-American transgressions, the Rework authors accuse it of being “too long,” “too expensive,” published in “Garamond: a kind of type developed in France,” and, worst of all, “Karl Rove’s book doesn’t even have any pictures in it.” In contrast, Rework is filled with pictures by a “bipartisan illustrator from America’s heartland” and written by authors who have never been “slaves to special interests.”

Check out “America’s Book” below:

[h/t Ryan Tate]