What was supposed to be learned?
There was another instance over twenty years ago, when someone asked for birthday cards and got so many, it ended up in the Guinness book of world records. People have been copying the idea ever since.
But I think this is real.
That this request can get out of control and waste a lot of time and money. The post office was flooded with millions of cards. He had to repeatedly ask the public to stop sending them.