Hasta La Ideas

Australian ad agency BMF has partnered with publisher Random House Australia to realise a nifty book donation charity campaign which turns the humble dust jacket into a pre-paid envelope…

BMF came up with the campaign, entitled Mailbooks For Good, as a way to make it super simple to donate books to The Footpath Library – a charity which provides books for homeless and disadvantaged Australians.

The idea is gloriously simple: once readers have finished a book sporting one of the specially designed dust jackets, they can simply remove said dust jacket, turn it inside out and wrap it back around the book at which point it becomes a perfectly fitting, pre-paid envelope. Et voila, the book is now ready to send direct to the charity for distribution:

The campaign works particularly well for The Footpath Library as they encourage the donation of books in good condition. “It’s important for our readers to receive books before they are old or broken,” says Sarah Garnett, founder of the charity. “When you don’t have very much, the gift of a beautiful book reminds you that you are connected to the world and that the world cares.”

Earlier this month Random House released several titles sporting Mailbooks For Good jackets in Sydney’s Gleebooks book shop, displayed in special point-of-sale shelves (as above) . The agency and charity hope to roll out the campaign internationally in the near future.

Find out more about the campaign at mailbooksforgood.com.

The April print issue of CR presents the work of three young animators and animation teams to watch. Plus, we go in search of illustrator John Hanna, test out the claims of a new app to have uncovered the secrets of viral ad success and see how visual communications can both help keep us safe and help us recover in hospital

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