Controversy Simmers Over Putting Sponsors On Stamps

With the advent of e-mail and electronic bill paying, fewer Americans are using stamps these days. But some of those who still revere the art form of stamps are concerned that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is trading heritage for profit in its selection of commemorative stamps. Entire Article..

This issue has been an on-going concern for years, not only in the US, but elsewhere.

Some may recall that Canada issued some (Olympic?) stamps with the McDonald's logo in the selvage, which caused some controversy.

The US caved into corporate America by featuring a stamp depicting the Hershey's Kiss, which was indirectly was a plug for Hershey's Chocolates, not to mention Disney characters, etc. The list could go on.

There has also been on and off talk about the USPS selling space on its trucks to advertisers and I think I recall something about the USPS considering selling corporate names on its postmarks as yet another means to gain some added revenue.

In most cases, however, the political backfire has not allowed most to take place, so the focus now seems to be more on the subject matter of the stamps themselves rather than any of these alternative forms of advertising.

A previous thread on the subject:

https://goscf.com/t/32049&SearchTerms=advertising

Unfortunately, the link I provided in that old thread no longer works, but here's a link that does work:

https://www.uspsoig.gov/blog/we-advertise-you

You don't think that stamps for the Olympics (a private for profit company), the anniversary of the stock exchange (lots of private for profit companies), various colleges (for profit learning companies)weren't trading on a potential profit motive? Did we really need a stamp honoring CPA's, except that the though was that they would then use it? Does anyone really think that there are Christmas stamps are issued every year for any reason other than potential profits? Having two issued every year does nothing to show our "Heritage". People like them and they sell, so they get issued. There have been dozens of foreigners on US stamps, and plenty of subtle and not so subtle nods to corporate entities. The Harry Potter stamps were probably one of the better ideas from the PO standpoint. Lots of people who bought them will never use them, so they got the money without having to perform the work. Batman will probably fall into that category as well.