Canterbury print shop embraces new Covid name
The latest variant of Covid named Omicron, first detected in South Africa, has been met with widespread speculation due to the peculiarity of its name, including at a print business in Canterbury.
Shining a spotlight on the industry
Friday, 10 Dec 2021 17:42 GMT
The independent print company which supports local students and businesses, has made light
Omicron Repro, a company that specialises in small- and large-format print services, has used social media and the press to highlight the name it shares with the Covid strain to help make light of the situation, and not back down despite the negative connotations that could come by association.
The company that produces a large range of solutions including posters, stickers, leaflets, digital wallpaper, and signage uploaded a photo to its social media channels that started the attention.
The picture displays managing director Mark Fawcett-Jones (on the left) and director Dave Loveridge (on the right) both wearing hazmat suits pointing at the shop name with the photo caption: “Just to clarify, we did not create the Omicron variant. Although, we’re not taking any chances…”
The picture garnered the notice of
BBC journalist Tom Hourigan, along with several publications, and Talk Radio, which Fawcett-Jones was later interviewed on.
Speaking to Print Monthly, Fawcett-Jones says: "It did initially come as a shock that the new variant was called Omicron, but we wanted to put a light-hearted slant on it, so we uploaded the hazmat picture on our Instagram.
We don't want to be making fun of the nightmare that so many people throughout the world are going through, but we wanted to put a smile on people’s faces”
“It has received a lot of attention from various areas, including radio, papers, and even Jeremy Vine talking about it on his Channel 5 programme. We have had many positive comments from customers and there has been a lot of people taking pictures of the front of the shop.”
The business has since named itself ‘Omicron (not the new variant) Repro’ on social media and has generated thousands of clicks, likes, and followers.
Fawcett-Jones adds: “We joked to a customer that we sent an email to the Government asking for a vaccine to be named after us, but we think they read the email wrong.
“We don't want to be making fun of the nightmare that so many people throughout the world are going through, but we wanted to put a smile on people’s faces.”
Omicron Repro’s embracing of the affiliation is an example of how businesses which will now be affected by the variant and its restrictions are making the best of a difficult situation. The use of social media and trends has once again proven valuable for a company, regardless of its size.
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