The Letter Arty’s t-shirt campaign goes big as GCA petition tops 4,000 signatures
Choose Cards is the latest slogan for the #Cardmitment campaign aimed at reminding folk just how much they love sending and receiving cards – and also getting behind the GCA’s government petition to save Royal Mail’s delivery service.
And the two came together at Top Drawer yesterday, 13 January, with the special t-shirts produced by Matt Simpson, of The Letter Arty indie store in Manchester, much in evidence as retailers, publishers and visitors showed their support for the petition.
The GCA petition went live just last week and over 4,200 have already signed up asking for parliamentary scrutiny of any proposal to change the universal service obligation where Royal Mail must deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days to every address in the UK for the same price.
It can be accessed here or via the QR code pictured on the poster which can also be printed off to display in shops, or emailed out to your customer base asking them to sign up to get the 10,000 names needed to force the government to respond to it – and if the total tops 100,000 then it will have to be considered for debate by MPs.
More detail is available on the association website, with a post by GCA council member David Falkner too, explaining how it calls on the government to amend legislation to require parliamentary scrutiny on any changes to the USO and insist these moves would be dependent on Royal Mail meeting existing performance delivery targets for letters and cards – where it has failed to do so for the past four years and was fined £10.5million by Ofcom in December following a £5.6m penalty in 2023.
Matt’s Choose Cards action came about when the typography fan was inspired by the classic 80s Choose Life t-shirt to design his own version to support the #Cardmitment campaign: “It was a bit of fun to include in an Instagram reel (which can be seen below).
“Such was the reaction from other retailers and cardies that I found a local screen printer in Manchester, just 50 yards from the shop, and had a limited run printed, which were all quickly snapped up.”
And with Top Drawer being the first of the spring trade shows since the shirts sold out Matt and his cardie pals decided to show their #Cardmitment by wearing them with pride, and the response has been so great that he’s now got a second run set up.
“Don’t worry if you missed out, I’m doing another print run of the Choose Cards t-shirts in February, so you’ve got until 31 January to pre-order yours in white with black writing or red with white letters at £24 plus postage. I’m doing pre-orders to minimise waste and ensure every shirt printed is purchased and worn and now have sizes going up to XXL!
“I’m looking at doing tote bags like the one I had made just for me – and don’t forget to bring your t-shirt along to PG Live in June so we can do an even bigger photo of people as they’re perfect for anyone who loves to make, sell, send or receive greeting cards. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to look super cool in an 80s model-style like me!”
