Winston’s Wish collab with GCA, Moonpig and publishers to create guidelines
“Please don’t include the word ‘sorry’ as it sounds like it is their fault”, “We don’t really understand ‘sympathy’, it’s words of support we want”, “brighter colours” and “fewer flowers and birds”, are just some of the requests from the Winston’s Wish charity’s youth ambassadors regarding what bereaved young people want to see on greeting cards that could be sent following the death of a parent, sibling or close relative.
These insights were aired at a groundbreaking workshop last week held at Moonpig’s HQ, instigated by the Winston’s Wish charity for bereaved children in conjunction with the GCA and involving several publishers to confront the seeming paucity of suitable cards for this very sad send.
And several of the youngsters made the point that they felt excluded, having not received any cards directly when their parent or sibling died, when they would really have liked to.
As Paul Moore, the charity’s director of fundraising and marketing, explained: “One in 20 children in the UK experience the death of a parent before the age of 16. Expand this to the loss of a grandparent, sibling or other close relative and this number becomes immense. Winston’s Wish has supported 80,000 grieving young people in the last year alone,”
The GCA’s Amanda Fergusson and Adriana Lovesy; Rebecca Green of Raspberry Blossom, Nicci Gower of Hammond Gower, Hallmark’s Donna MacGregor, Yvonne Caddell of Little Giorgo’s Designs, PG’s Jakki Brown and several members of the Moonpig team joined the charity’s group of enthusiastic and erudite youth ambassadors to listen and learn where greeting cards are missing the mark.
Sarah-Jane Porter, Moonpig’s global design and licensing director, welcomed everyone, explaining one mission of the afternoon was to “arrive at a set of guidelines that will be shared with the greeting card industry” for how publishers can best cater to the card needs of grieving young people.
And, speaking to the Winston’s Wish ambassadors, GCA CEO Amanda added: “Greeting cards are very special things to send when times are difficult as well as to celebrate. Thank you for identifying this gap in the market and agreeing to work with us to address this.”
The attendees were then divided into five groups to discuss the most appropriate tone, imagery and sentiment level for such designs, with each reporting back to their conclusions.
Among the many points made during the group sessions were…
“A lot of the greeting cards on sale are too wordy.”
“If you wouldn’t say it, don’t put it on a card.”
“We like the comfort of seeing well-known characters, such as Disney on cards.”
“Pale flowers or doves don’t really speak to us.”
“We don’t get the word ‘sympathy’ or ‘condolences’ on cards – change it to a more supportive word.”
“Don’t use the word ‘sorry’ as it suggests it’s the sender’s fault ,which it isn’t.”
“I like the sentiment of ‘you’re not alone’.”
“While ‘always here for you’ is a good sentiment, don’t include ‘any minute, every day’ as that’s an over-promise.”
“Don’t say ‘everything is going to be OK’ as it isn’t”
“Don’t say ‘you’ll be together again one day’ as that gives false hopes.”
All the ideas and discussions will now be fed into creating a set of guidelines that will be shared on the GCA website in the coming months.
The last word went to the youngest ambassador, Abigail ,whose daddy died when she was just six months old, and was very focused in the most appropriate element to bring into a card: “Hugs – you can hug everything out.”
The workshop was the culmination of a series of meetings that Paul has been holding with various publishers and the GCA over the last year, as covered by PG Buzz back in January.
