Keep the Scottish brand!
The big supermarkets in the UK (notably Tescos) have recently been replacing the Saltire on Scottish produce with a standard British (union) flag. With Brexit under way, this is perhaps understandable.
BUT...
Scottish produce has a global and growing reputation for quality and environmental standards. The Scottish Government has banned GM crops and fracking, further enhancing Scotland's reputation for quality and purity.
Replacing the Scottish branding with a British flag is likely to undermine sales of Scottish produce rather than enhancing them!
It's important that Scottish produce is clearly labelled with its origins to maintain its market-leading reputation.
Who are we?
ayeMail is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes Scotland and the case for Scottish independence (although the latter is not part of this campaign). We exist to help other organisations campaign in Scotland's interests.
What We Need
We want to print and distribute 100,000+ leaflets/flyers raising awareness of the quality and reputation of Scottish food. This is about maintaining the sales of our fish, beef, lamb, strawberries, potatoes, haggis, black pudding, whisky, gin, oatcakes, teacakes... and every other food & drink product made or grown in Scotland.
The leaflets will be professionally designed and explain why it is so critically important to support our farmers and other businesses by keeping the Scottish Brand on our produce. The call to action on the leaflets will be to contact the supermarkets and ask them to reinstate (or in some cases keep) the Scottish branding on Scottish produce.
Distributing these leaflets in the last couple of weeks before Christmas will have the biggest impact as people are shopping for festive food and drink.
To be absolutely clear, we are NOT asking people to "boycott" produce with the British flag or produce originated elsewhere in the UK - and nor should we. This is purely about getting the supermarkets to keep the Scottish Brand on Scottish produce.
Is this about independence?
No. This issue transcends the constitutional question. This is about defending and supporting our food and drink industry at a time when it is already threatened by Brexit. It is crucial to protect Scotland's reputation for food and drink excellence if we are to protect jobs and exports.
A recent Bank of Scotland survey revealed that 67% of Scottish food and drink companies had changed their recruitment plans as a result of Brexit.
Delivery
The National Yes Registry has established a network of Yes groups across Scotland, so we can use that to spread word, and we'll use the usual social media channels to raise broader public awareness.
The cartons of printed leaflets will be available for anybody to "purchase" (shipping costs only) through the ayeMail.scot store.
We're crowdfunding for the printing of the leaflets only. To actually deliver them, we'll have to ask groups and individuals to pay for the postage/courier fees (these will be nominal amounts compared to the value of leaflets shipped).
We'd like to distribute everything for free, but we don't think that it's right to crowdfund payments to couriers and/or the Post Office. We prefer every penny of donations to go to actual leaflet production. Since they get the leaflets for free, we think it's only fair to ask recipients to cover the postage.
Our time and effort is already covered. We're in this to help Scotland, not to make a profit, so you are funding the leaflet printing only. There are no staff costs and no profit margins to cover.
Perks
There is one perk level where we'll send you 100 leaflets via post. After the ~10% crowdfunding fees, the bulk of the £15 goes to getting the leaflets mass-printed, with £2 covering the physical postage. Obviously, if you can spare a few quid more, that will help us towards our target!
Once the leaflets are printed, they will be available to everybody.
