I think it's a smart move partly because it so firmly highlights the fact that a review is someone's opinion-- nothing more, nothing less. I went to Amazon and got the list of reviews for THE DA VINCI CODE:

3,939 Reviews
5 star: (1,601)
4 star: (659)
3 star: (545)
2 star: (415)
1 star: (719)

So, approx. 2/3 of readers have it either 4 or 5 stars, but over 700 people only gave it one! And yet I doubt Dan Brown is losing sleep over those 719 opinions.

You can't make bad reviews go away, and publicly calling reviewers names is probably the only true bad publicity. Besides, I think having kids recite those harsh words makes the reviewers sound rather pompous.

I mention negative reviews as well as positive ones. I think the reviewer, for taking the time to review the work, has earned it.

It was definitely a good idea.

His grandmother was great. I think it was a good idea. I don't know this author's work, but he comes across as likable. I like his humor, and although it doesn't make me want to buy this particular book - I now want to search his name on Amazon and see what else he has. Or to see if there were good reviews to balance those negative ones.

The trailer is great. My first thought was how wonderful it is to receive this many reviews from top sources. It didn't matter that the excerpts were critical. Then I checked the book on Amazon and decided to add it to my list based on the premise.

Hell, I put the bad reviews on the front covers of my last two books.

My grandmother had those scathing reviews, too. There are times where I suspect she died solely so I might take the hint and bother someone else.

I know the name, but I can't say I've read any of his work. I do admire someone who can take a negative and turn it into a positive, though. I thought it was pretty funny, especially his grandma.

Probably old gran's beau. ;)

When somebody reads your book they're giving up something more valuable than the money they paid for it. They're giving up time out of their life that they'll never get back. To my mind that entitles them to say anything they want, bad or good. And reviews, good or bad I accept with graciousness and thanks.

Oh, not at all! I was just spouting off on my own personal view concerning reviews. I think the video itself is genius and it makes me realize that writers perhaps don't take as much advantage of The Internet to promote their work as creatively.

I saw that a while back. So effing brilliant. Reminds me of the episode of Slings & Arrows where the advertising company decides to take out ads full of negative reviews as part of their rebranding campaign. Only in Brad Meltzer's case, I think it actually makes a positive statement.

I went out of my way to buy a U.K. copy of Ballard's Crash which has nothing but excerpts from bad reviews on the front, back and inside the fly-leaf. Because this is Crash, the reviews are pretty virulent--hilariously so--and because it's Ballard, people are still struggling to at least sound interesting while dissing him. (I also recall a few movie campaigns in which post-release ads featuring nothing but bad reviews [because there WERE nothing but bad reviews] were used to at least get people to go: "Well, shit, it can't possibly be that bad." Funnily enough, however, I can no longer remember what the films in question were, so I suppose the ads didn't work quite as well as they might have.)

By the time his grandmother identified herself, I was laughing. The dog was the icing on the cake. I have to admire this strategy. I mean, what did the guy really have to lose? And he probably gained a LOT more people buying the book--you know, the old psychological switcheroo.

Hilarious. I liked.