Barnes & Noble Unveils New Advertising Campaign for Bestselling NOOK Color™ Reader’s Tablet™

“Read Forever™” Anthem Celebrates the Power of Reading, Whether “By book or by NOOK™,” Through Intimate Portraits of People Who Love to Read

New York, New York – – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today unveiled a major new marketing campaign for its bestselling, highly acclaimed NOOK Color Reader’s Tablet, which showcases how Barnes & Noble – the bookstore you grew up with – continues to be the best brand for people who love reading in all its glorious forms. Grounded in Barnes & Noble’s longstanding connection to readers, the new “Read Forever” campaign celebrates the emotional power of reading through intimate portraits of people who love to read. Whimsically written, the campaign evokes the emotions inspired by a great read by showing real people truly immersed in their NOOKs, and their books.

The multi-faceted new campaign, developed by Barnes & Noble with Mullen, the bookseller’s new advertising partner, includes an integrated mix of broadcast and cable television, digital, social and print media designed to inspire reading in both a traditional and contemporary sense. The advertising creative features Barnes & Noble’s innovative and highly acclaimed NOOK Color Reader’s Tablet alongside physical books, as well as readers young and old in a variety of environments and situations.

The new TV spots, which begin airing this week, feature many real people, not professional actors, some spotted by the creative team in real-life reading situations, including a commuter, two high-school students, a ballerina and a music store owner. Directed by Mike Mills, the spots have a short-film quality, captured with natural light and in relatable moments that express the importance of reading to the human experience.

Purposeful and passionate, the campaign’s anthem of “Read Forever” reinforces the essential nature of reading by imagining the fantastical circumstances under which reading would no longer be essential: “Till rhymes stop rhyming, and pots stop boiling, and everyone is happy, and there is nothing more to say. Till that day. By hook or by crook, by book or by NOOK, I will read.” The announcer’s voiceover – “NOOK Color by Barnes & Noble” – is heard after the stylized NOOK “n” logo and the “Read Forever” tagline appear.

“Our ‘Read Forever’ campaign beautifully expresses what Barnes & Noble has always stood for, a genuine love of books and reading, and also illustrates what readers love about reading – the ability to lose, find, amuse and educate yourself in written pages,” said Sasha Norkin, Vice President, Digital Marketing of Barnes & Noble. “For decades, millions of book lovers have turned to Barnes & Noble, America’s favorite bookstore, to fulfill their love of reading. With NOOK Color, they can continue this tradition with the best device on the market, a sleek tablet that offers reading – and so much more – in rich, immersive color.”

The campaign promotes Barnes & Noble’s bestselling NOOK Color Reader’s Tablet, which offers reading lovers a best-in-class reading experience on its gorgeous 7-inch full color touchscreen, perfect for reading everything – books, magazines, newspapers and children’s books – in rich color, from the company’s expansive digital content catalog of more than two million titles. And NOOK Color, the best-valued tablet on the market, just got even better with today’s major free software update (www.nookcolor.com/update) that delivers more of what customers want: shopping for a broad collection of popular applications, built-in email, an enhanced Web experience and many other much-requested features and new rich content for adults and children. Barnes & Noble also welcomes customers to visit one of its more than 700 bookstores across the country, to explore its NOOK products and learn from helpful booksellers, always ready to help get new customers ready and reading.

With airings starting this week, the TV campaign will be highly visible, featuring 30- and 60-second spots during regular episodes and season finales of top cable and network shows, including American Idol and other popular programming. The print campaign, which begins in early May, will run in high-circulation publications, and include both intimate portraits of readers, as well as product-centric ads that feature NOOK Color, its innovative features and accolades with the headline, “If you love reading, this is your tablet.”

Barnes & Noble is also giving its customers and Facebook fans the opportunity to participate in a fun social media promotion that will reward them for sharing the TV spot, along with the reasons they could read forever. By entering, they’ll have a chance to win the grand prize: a NOOK Color and gift certificate for $1,000 to enjoy lots of great reading from the vast collection available in the NOOK Bookstore™. The promotion will be supported with digital media on top sites including AmeicanIdol.com and others. Customers can view the TV spot and learn more at www.bn.com/readforever.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 705 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 636 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read eBooks on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK eBook Readers, devices from partner companies, and hundreds of the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.