Editing Mr. ZIP (section)

==Origins==
[[File:UseZipCode.JPG|thumb|Mr. ZIP on a 1963 sign.]]
The USPS has described the origin of Mr. ZIP as follows:<ref name="digitalicon">{{Cite web |date=July 2008 |title=Mr. ZIP |url=https://www.usps.com/postalhistory/_pdf/MrZIP.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508223728/https://www.usps.com/postalhistory/_pdf/MrZIP.pdf |archive-date=May 8, 2009 |website=United States Postal Service}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gill|first=Alex|date=October 2016|title=Zone Improvement Plan: The Story of Mr. Zip|url=https://americanphilateliccongress.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PHJ165.pdf#page=9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017053740/https://americanphilateliccongress.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PHJ165.pdf#page=9|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 17, 2021|journal=Postal History Journal|publisher=Postal History Society|issue=165|pages={{usurped|1=[https://americanphilateliccongress.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PHJ165.pdf#page=9 7]}}-11|issn=0032-5341|quote=Despite the success and popularity of Mr. Zip with the younger generation, the enthusiasm was not shared by all. Several groups had a negative view of the new campaign and resented the implementation of ZIP codes by Mr. Zip as a burden in their daily lives.}}</ref>
<blockquote>Mr. ZIP was based on an original design by Howard Wilcox, son of a letter carrier and a member of the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency, for use by a New York bank in a bank-by-mail campaign. Wilcox's design was a child-like sketch of a postman delivering a letter. The figure was used only a few times, then filed away. Later, AT&T acquired the design and made it available to the Post Office Department at no cost. ... Miami-based Post Office Department artist Joe Lawrence retained the face but sharpened the limbs and torso and added a mail bag. The new figure, who Lawrence had dubbed Mr. ZIP, was unveiled at a convention of postmasters in October 1962.</blockquote>

The character's original name had been '''Mr. P.O. Zone''', but was changed to Mr. ZIP along with the new term "ZIP code."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arago.si.edu/category_2036101.html|title=Mr. ZIP|last=Pope|first=Nancy|date=2006-05-01|website=Smithsonian National Postal Museum|access-date=2018-06-13}}</ref>