A Million Little Direct Mail Pieces: A Memoir
The average citizen does not wake up in the morning, hell-bent on becoming a direct marketing reporter. My own path was a circuitous one, and I offer what I hope is an inspirational tale of my transformation from a lad without focus into the direct marketing chronicler I am today.
In setting down these memoirs, I join the ranks of James Frey, Margaret B. Jones and JT LeRoy, and it is in their spirit that I tell my story.
Although I did not know it at the time, the experiences that led to my life in direct marketing journalism began with my service within the U.S. War Department during World War II. In 1943, while toiling quietly as a civil servant, I was plucked from behind my desk by the Office of Strategic Services and assigned to make contact with Allied force sympathizers in Croatia. I was accompanied on this mission by a young British Intelligence officer named David Ogilvy.
As this was the heat of wartime, Ogilvy and I were given scant time to prepare before we boarded our flight to Central Europe. While we slipped into the city of Zagreb easily enough, Axis soldiers soon discovered our attempted subterfuge. This was partly due to David
