There it was, beckoning from the hands of newsies in front of Union Station in Toronto this morning: ‘Take me.’

The unusual plea on the cover of free commuter daily Metro this morning caught MiC‘s eye on the way to the office. The newspaper market is cluttered, sure, but when was the last time the newspaper itself begged for your attention? But when flipped upside down, the cover displayed a remarkably more confident air: ‘Taken,’ it claimed.

As it turns out, it was a cover-wrap stunt that was part of the paper’s first national ad campaign, ‘News Worth Sharing,’ which includes OOH, TV, radio, digital, stunts and in-paper advertising. The campaign runs for six weeks.

The media planning and buying, valued at $2.7 million, was handled by Starcom in Toronto. Rethink’s Toronto office did the creative.

Inside the wrap on this morning’s paper were two of the sharing advertisements, with one showing two men on the subway reading different sides of the same paper and another featuring a close-up of two people with their heads together reading at the same time.

The ‘News Worth Sharing’ campaign is meant to inspire readers to pass along their copies after they’re done with them. Some of the posters along pedestrian commuter routes are even equipped with clear bins where passersby can drop off their finished copies and others can pick them up.