Eye - 10 November 2023
From Oaty outreach to Inventive insertions
Oaty outreach
Eye’s exploration of ‘The porridge peculiarity’ (22 September) prompted one trusty reader to pay extra attention to a certain cereal producer’s advertising.
Meg Hill, of Preston Patrick Meeting, writes: ‘Following the piece in Eye about Quaker Oats I was amused to see an advert on television whose punchline was “Feed the Fire Inside”.
‘Intrigued, I looked up some more of their statements about their product and found “Fill your life with goodness that inspires great days” and “At Quaker, our fire inside is driven by a desire to set the foundations for a better future”. Perhaps we should ask them to do more outreach for us?’
Positivity in print
Christine McNeill, of Lisburn Monthly Meeting, has shone the spotlight on a recent mention of Quakers in Country Life magazine.
On 4 October ‘Town Mouse’ penned a piece about a trip to Cornwall, during which they attend a Quaker marriage.
They wrote: ‘The wedding itself was a Quaker ceremony – held in silence with members of the congregation speaking as the spirit moved them – and proved exceptionally moving. Everyone witnessed the wedding certificate with babies making their thumbprint in place of a signature. There were Cornish pasties on the pier to follow and then a magical boat trip to the wedding breakfast across a completely calm sea.’
Christine told Eye: ‘To capitalise on this piece of favourable publicity, I submitted a letter to the editor. It was rather too wordy. However, trimmed by the editor, it was chosen and printed as Star Letter of the week, 18 October, winning a bottle of champagne. As a teetotaller, I won’t have qualms about cleaning the sink with the Pol Roger.’
In her star letter, Christine shared how her and her husband’s Quaker wedding went down with one relative in particular: ‘In our romantic naivety, we assumed my husband’s formidable aunt would be thrilled to be at our wedding. How we chuckle as we recall her scathing comment – she brands our simple Quaker ceremony “a poor sort of a do”!’
In her original letter, which Christine kindly shared with Eye, she also shared the special place their wedding certificate holds in their hearts: ‘Ours has provided us with a clear record of all who were present in support on our wedding day. My husband and I have established a tradition, fondly kept on each wedding anniversary, of perusing all the signatures.’
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