Canada Scraps Mental Health Stamp Design

David Williams writes in the Saint John, New Brunswick,Canada Telegraph-Journal that Canada has scrapped its original design for a mental health stamp that was due to be released next month after Canada Post received quite a bit of negative feedback regarding its design.

The original stamp illustration (shown here) featured a drawing of a person's head with what appeared to be an arrow through it.

According to Williams it was reminiscent of Steve Martin's stand-up comedy routine where he wore a fake arrow.

The post office began getting complaints when the design was unveiled in mid-June. Many felt the illustration was simply inappropriate for a stamp being issued to assist those affected by mental illness.

The post office dropped the design and got the same firm that had created the original, to come up with a new one.

The new design is a digitally-enhanced photograph of a person with their back to the camera. They are, according to Canada Post, "stepping out of the shadows, using a mega-phone to broadcast the plight of mental health patients."

Williams writes the design change could have been worse.

Two years ago, New Zealand Post cancelled an entire issue of five stamps after millions had been printed when it got feedback suggesting the stamps would offend that country's native Maori people.

He points out Canada Post's original semi-postal stamp design never got printed.

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