Attention Advertisers!

Yesterday I received yet another “pre-approved” credit card application in the mail from Royal Bank. The same Royal Bank that I’ve instructed two times in the last six months to remove my name from their mailing list, in addition to the “do not contact me” checkbox on my application for a Group RRSP account with my old employer that I signed over a year ago. Apparently they just don’t get it. I’m not interested. I never have been interested. I never will be interested. Advertisers: Stop wasting your time, my time, and a whole forest in your pathetic attempt at “direct” marketing.

In the last six months, I’ve received no less than ten un-addressed pre-approved credit card applications from Capital One. Ten. Do they think I just overlooked these things? Was I desperate for credit but just so incredibly inept that I couldn’t figure out how to mail an application?

The amusing/annoying part is when you try to do these companies a favour and notify them you’re not interested. Capital One, for example, doesn’t actually provide an email address or direct phone number to contact to have your name removed. Instead, they hide the information on how to get removed at the bottom of the mailing address page on their web site. It appears that Capital One is especially dedicated to wasting their money advertising to people who aren’t interested. I wonder what the company’s investors would think about that?

There is an easier way (sort of) to get your name removed from these lists through the Canadian Marketing Association‘s Do Not Contact registrar. Unfortunately, this will only eliminate the mail from those companies that are members of the CMA. And last time I checked, most of my junk mail comes from local realtors, pizza shops, Chinese restaurants, et cetera. Guess how many of them are CMA members? That’s right, zero!

What amazes me most about advertisers is how they blindly blast people with ads for stuff they would never buy, even if they had the money. Personally, I’d be happy to tell advertisers everything about me if it would guarantee that the only companies that advertised to me were ones that sold something I actually wanted to buy. But then again, I guess that runs counter to the purpose of advertising.

In this day and age, why are advertisers still relying on Neanderthal techniques to determine who to target for “direct” marketing? Canada Post offers a service that allows bulk mailers to “target” postal walks, based on the assumption that a person’s living area is a great indicator of what a person will buy. Just because I live in a trendy area doesn’t mean I’m interesting in buying or selling a condo, obtaining a platinum card, or buying an SUV. People are more than blips on the demographic radar, and it’s time advertisers learned to stop trying to hard sell people who just don’t care about what they’re selling.

David Suzuki Replies

I received a fax reply today from David Suzuki regarding the question I asked him. To paraphrase, I asked Dr. Suzuki why he hadn’t released his an electronic version of his book, as a way of not only spreading his message, but also as a way of deflecting any potential criticism of him “hawking stuff” while lambasting our culture of consumption.

Dr. Suzuki replied:

Dear Mr. Wilson:

Thanks for your note and the suggestion. Unfortunately, my publisher is currently going down the tube so they’re not interested in new ideas but I’ll wait and see.

I don’t think it’s hypocritical to be hawking ideas that are still tied to material things. The issue is what and how much we consume.

David Suzuki

Perhaps “hypocritical” is too strong a word, but I still feel that if Suzuki were truly interested in changing the world, then releasing an electronic version of his book would accelerate that cause. After all, a recent press release from Suzuki’s own foundation protests the recent move in BC towards self-regulation of forestry industry. What better way to make a point than to publish the book electronically and help move forward the acceptance of electronic books as an alternative to chopping down forests? If you don’t like what the forest companies are doing, why provide the material that drives the demand for paper?

Though electronic books are currently second-rate substitutes for the real thing, they won’t get any better without increased consumer demand. Publishers, such as the publisher of Suzuki’s book, are hesitant to release something for nothing until they can be sure that there will be some way in the future to make a profit. That said, a number of authors and publishers have already realized that releasing a free electronic version of their books only help their sales, and are even backing that claim with numbers that prove their point.