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I am at the post office getting stamps and I look to my right to see the above image. Freedom is scratched out and I ask the cashier “Why does the line go through the FOREVER like that?”

He says, “It’s so people don’t steal them and try to use them as a stamp.”

I laughed and thought he was joking because they are magnets. I thought “a) are there really people that dumb enough to try and use an oversized magnet as a stamp and b) why on earth would they choose to put a line through FOREVER?”

He did not laugh back and was completely serious!

They could have made any other mark. A huge X through the entire stamp. They could have put a watermark over it. they could have done so many other things than cross out FOREVER!

All I am saying is I am considering this to be a HUGE marketing failure for the Post Office! Would you agree?

Question: What is a “Fail” you have seen recently? 

 

Ryan Avery

Author Ryan Avery

Hi, my name is Ryan Avery! Every Sunday I share the "notes" I use to build my keynotes. They are personal stories and tangible strategies we can use to improve the way we communicate at work, at home and with ourselves.

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Join the discussion 2 Comments

  • Heather Hawkins says:

    I would too normally. But the “forever” part is actually the name of the line of stamps rather than just being part of the phrase “freedom forever.” Its a really weird thing to do, regardless. But I guess its so the postal employees only have to look at wherever the “forever” bit would be on each series of stamps rather than trying to decode from whatever else might be on there. Just “If it has a line through forever on miss piggie or johnny cash or whomever…its not real.”

  • Greg Guikema says:

    Wow. This is not really bad marketing but is a play on the advertiser thinking that people are really stupid. A video I took from IKEA in Canton which is on my facebook page. If you canno view it there is an enormous poster of a hot dog that says 50 cents then in the corner of the poster is the disclaimer “NOT ACTUAL SIZE”

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200910722432737&set=vb.1305574945&type=2&theater

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