USPS/HBO Ads Send a Message — by Mail

HBO is joining forces for the first time with the Postal Service, for a multimillion-dollar, multimedia campaign that is all about the write stuff.

The campaign, now under way, is promoting “John Adams,” a seven-part mini-series that is scheduled to begin on the cable network on March 16.

The television, print, online, retail and promotional campaign is intended to invoke the pleasures of sitting right down and writing yourself — or anyone — a letter.

The campaign will even help you do that, by offering free cards, with postage paid, that you can send to whomever you choose.

The campaign, by the Civic Entertainment Group in New York, seeks to demonstrate what it calls the “Power of the letter,” which is also the U.R.L. for a special Postal Service Web site that is a central element of the campaign (poweroftheletter.com).

The Web site is the work of AKQA, which was recently named digital agency of the year by the trade publication Adweek.

A section of a Web site from HBO that is devoted to the miniseries (johnadams08.com) also directs visitors to the letter-power site.

The campaign also appears on the main Postal Service Web site (usps.com) as well as on placards and posters in post offices around the country.

Even the cancellation marks on envelopes and the sales receipts given by postal employees to customers are carrying the address of the special Web site along with a quotation from Adams: “Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.”