New US Postal Service ad campaign aims at e-mail security

By Jeff Hughes Published October 1, 2011

“A refrigerator has never been hacked.”

This is how an announcer begins one of two new 30-second spots which are part of USPS’ latest campaign to save itself from doom.

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Another ad assures viewers that with USPS, important information won’t disappear with a click. Safe and secure are the central words repeated prominently in the two ads. The good news is the postal service is still fighting, but it seems that to do so, the government agency feels it needs a smear campaign against e-mail.

The new ads will be broadcast in the next week during the news and college football games.

“We’re not trying to be Luddites here. We’re not trying to say technology is bad. But the predictions of how fast customers would leave us were overstated,” said Joyce Carrier who is in charge of advertising for the Postal Service. Carrier points out that market research shows that people feels secure about their paper mail. $145 million was spent in 2010 on print, television and online advertising.

It’s no secret that the United States Postal Service is ailing—and it’s mostly thanks to e-mail. According to a recent announcement from the Postal Service, mail volume has been down by more than 43 billion in the past five years, and has declined by almost 50 percent in the past 10 years. A 1 percent decline in overall mail volume, according to Carrier, means a loss of $300 million.

The Postal Service is set to announce by the end of the week that it has lost close to $10 billion this year, and will be closing post offices, processing facilities and offer worker buyouts.

There are many other options out there for the service. As we’ve pointed out, USPS could specialize, mirror competitors, team with online retailers and could, rather than trying to beat email, just get with the times. Back in June, former VP Vint Cerf and other tech savy individuals held PostalVision 2020 in an attempt to help the USPS get up to speed with technology. To learn more, visit USPS.com/mail.

Via Washington Post

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