Why Canada Post was promoting letter-writing in the email era
Over 20 years ago, Crown corporation launched campaign to boost volume of letters being sent
There were fewer and fewer letters, and that was causing more and more worry at Canada Post.
The Crown corporation had seen a 10 per cent drop in the volume of personal letters flowing through its system over a five-year period.
And that loss of letters was also causing a loss on its bottom line of some $30 million annually, according to a report that aired on The National in February of 1999.
In a bid to stem the decline, Canada Post launched an ad campaign aimed at getting Canadians to pick up pens and paper once again.
The ads used language that drove home the idea that there was something special about writing something on paper, rather than typing it in an email.
"We feel that if people get back to the art of letter-writing, it's a little more personal," Canada Post spokesman John Caines explained to CBC News.
As the ads put it: "Nothing says it better than a letter."
Nothing? What about email?
Yet the consumers who CBC spoke to about the issue were skeptical of the supposed benefits of traditional paper-based communication — citing the fact that email didn't require postage or a trip to the mailbox.
That was the view of a University of Toronto professor who spoke to CBC as well.
"I think that when most Canadians sit there and watch Canada Post extolling the virtues of old-fashioned letter-writing, they're going to laugh into their popcorn," said Liss Jeffrey, alluding to the fact that the Canada Post ad campaign was airing in movie theatres.
The National's report on the Canada Post ad campaign ended with a look at the bigger challenge the postal service was facing: a permanent change in the way Canadians communicated.
"Home internet use doubled in Canada last year. Each new connection potentially means fewer customers and less revenue for Canada Post," reporter Norman Hermant told viewers.