Outtakes from our report on direct mail: While ecology-minded people rail about unused phonebooks and dying forests, we calculated that the average household receives about 200 pounds of junk mail per year. Meanwhile, the average phonebook weighs about 4 pounds. Because half of all adults neither use their junk mail nor open their phone books, that means 100 pounds per household of wasted paper and 2 pounds of wasted phone books.
Here’s another tidbit: A lobbying group has formed (probably from former tobacco lobbyists) claiming that junk mail is actually good for the environment. They call it “advertising mail.” It saves gas and reduces traffic jams. No lie! Check out www.mailmovesamerica.org.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for advertising. It’s educational and entertaining, and it floats all media boats. But it’s time we started putting things into perspective. The direct mail industry doesn’t have much of a face, as we described in our latest report. There’s no big brand name or no TV, radio or newspaper promotion behind it. It just slips into the mailbox every day. And, if you’re like my wife, the first stop between the mailbox and the door is the trash can, where most of it winds up.
There’s too much waste in advertising. It’s giving the industry a bad name. Every advertiser feels like John Wanamaker, the department store magnate who believed that half of his advertising worked and half of it didn’t – and he didn’t know which half was which. If the Internet fulfills its promise of delivering greater advertising efficiency, I am hoping it wraps its digital tentacles around direct mail and squeezes hard.
Tags: direct mail, direct marketing, e-mail, email
not certain, but i think the term “advertising mail” was a product of the usps. everytime i see them interviewed for a piece on legislation calling for a do-not-mail list they trot that line out.
and people roll their eyes at the term “enhanced interrogation methods”.
(imo either one means torture for its recipients)
i’m thinking about registering the domain junkmailisobscene(dotcom) and either pointing it at the mailmoves property you mention above, or offering a link to the usps where one can find out info about form 1500.
where’s the principal that a man’s home is his castle in this debate?