Friday, October 10, 2008

All-purpose greeting cards

A troubled economy needs brilliant new business ideas. Here’s mine.

How many times have you tried to buy a ‘congratulations on your new baby’ card but only been able to find ones for weddings and graduations? How often have you needed a ‘sorry you’re leaving’ card but been stuck with a choice of ones for dead pets or non-threatening illnesses?

Some fools have suggested there be vastly more specific greeting cards, such as ‘condolences on your inept party conference photo-op’ or ‘good luck, and try not to laugh when saying your vows this time’. But these fools are fools (and I pity them): the idea is well-intentioned, but it would only make it even likelier that the shop would be out of exactly the right one.

What we need are all-purpose greeting cards:

‘Sharing the appropriate emotion
On this particular occasion’

Or for a less formal, more poetic touch:

‘Because I care, I thought I’d pay
To buy this card so I could say
I’m with you, feeling the right way
For whatever thing it is today’

Reckon there’s serious money in that. Dunno what you’d put for the picture, though.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you not discovered Moonpig.com yet? Pick a card (on their website), type a few words for it, then they envelope it, stamp it, and send it.

If you don't have an address for the person you're sending the card to, they send it back to you so you can give it to the person yourself.

I can confidently say that my life is now 5% easier than it used to be, because of Moonpig.com.

Tom Freeman said...

5% you say? Hmm, I'd better look into this. These guys are clearly strategic competitors whom I'll have to either buy out or firebomb...

Unknown said...

Anything happens to Moonpig and I'll come and get ya!