Bookfair: marketing brilliance or insanity [GALLERY]

While the Trade Development Council expects to draw at least a million people to the annual Hong Kong Book Fair this year – 2012’s visitor count was 900,000 – one can’t help but to question why these people make the effort to pry through swarms of adrenaline-pumped crowds for discounts you can easily find outside.SCROLL DOWN FOR GALLERY For the love for reading? Academia? Knowledge? Perhaps: but as of last year, scantily-covered male and female pseudo-models seem to be the answer; and as of yesterday, a fat cat.A ginger-haired cat who earned his fame after his owner posted a missing notice last year attracted crowds yesterday at its “book signing” (rather, paw-signing with stamps of his feet).To date, the feline has sold more than 8000 copies of his photo book, “Cream Chicken Soup” – which alludes to the popular American series, “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.Publisher Popular World said the photo book topped the best-selling chart of its family of books this season.Aside from the latest ginger cat, the male pseudo-models’ photo books were sold out in the first few days at the book fair, according to Apple Daily, and young women who take the phrase “less is more” almost too seriously continue to go head to head with one another in both their photo books and during their fans’ meet-and-greet sessions.Perhaps this is successful advertising at its best on the Hong Kong Book Fair’s part to draw in more visitors, but the question is: is it too much?The fair ends tomorrow.[gallery ids="17500,17501,17502"]