T-GIVO

Somehow my sister and I shorten Thanksgiving to T-GIVO over email a few years ago. I think it was just the right mix of being too lazy to type a 12-letter word out and our weird genetic bond that gives us an understanding of the other's strangeness.

What's even more strange than my sister and I is the sudden onslaught of Thanksgiving greeting cards. I can see a Thanksgiving greeting making sense in business. It is non-denominational (unless you count "American"), but more specific than Happy Winter (with a Purely Coincidental Large Chunk of Time Off Around December 25th). But why in world would you buy Aunt May a greeting card to help her celebrate the fact that she has to make turkey and fixin's for 17 people and 9 children? Not to mention clean the bathroom because Uncle George is tired and four beers deep into the couch after his harrowing experience racing against the clock and the other 3,000 people at Safeway to score some fresh sage and three eggs.

Needless to say, I approve of my client's approach, using the greeting as an extra and not the only message. Using the "card" as an email header, they sent out a festive e-blast with some solid info for their members––two birds with one stone. (There's got to be a less violent way to put that––let's say two pies with one fork, in honor of our food-based holiday).

Here are the comps I sent them, although they ultimately went with a more elaborate version of the first: