[Re: Loose Cannon: Say It Loud: I’m Junk And I’m Proud, Direct Newsline, November 13, 2006 directmag.com/loosecannon/loose-cannon-say-loud-junk-mail-proud-111306/]:
Yes, the pejorative will remain operative forever, perpetuated primarily by dying media (newspapers and broadcast), jealous of our staying power and continuing relevance, and frustrated by their loss of revenue.
Had your article been longer, I’m sure you would have provided the two major rules for using the pejorative (the second of which was broken by The New York Times).
1. How many articles you run excoriating direct mail is in direct proportion to how many pieces you yourself mail to build subscriptions. Over my career, I’ve seen more articles in The Wall Street Journal than any place else, and, of course, they have mailed probably a billion subscription offers over 40 years.
2. If your readers are upscale, you do not use the four-letter word. It should always be called “Junque Mail.”
As you suggest, what the New Orleans resident misses is not J**K MAIL, but the opposite — marketing communications mail that is RELEVANT to him. So let’s suggest to newspapers and broadcast media that we all work together to get rid of IRRELEVANT MAIL.
Lee Marc Stein
Lee Marc Stein, Ltd.
Direct Marketing Consulting & Creative Services
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“One woman’s junk mail is another’s Christmas wish book.”
Fred Morath
Fred Morath Direct Marketing
Natick, MA
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Great column. I’ve been calling myself a “Junk Mail Expert” for years. One night I was at the head table with Dr. Gene Del Polito, after introducing myself I explained that people feel empowered when I use the term. We are actually giving our recipients the right to throw away our beautiful (or not) creativity, GUILT FREE.
Lest you think that trivial… tell me what else fits? Even the spoilage in the fridge lets us know that we bought too much, didn’t cap the bottle or haven’t cleaned regularly. Only junk mail can be tossed aside with no thought that “I might need this some day.” No worries, more will come! This is the foundational basis for the Supreme Court allowing us to directly intrude peoples’ homes. “The distance from the mailbox to the trash can is sufficiently short not to constitute an invasion of privacy.”
Gene got up to give his speech… somewhere in the middle he was overcome with uncharacteristic passion… He pounded the podium looking straight at me…”How are we going to be taken seriously and get decent rates… when even WE call it ‘JUNK MAIL'”?
Like it or not its here to stay… if I’m not in the market for a car, then all the dealership mail is junk… if that little red light starts blinking those same mailers are carefully evaluated. It isn’t about us… we work harder than ANY medium to be relevant. It is market’s core dynamic that there are more prospects than buyers. “Junk mail” is a tongue-in-cheek reminder that it is OK to market, that we are not communistic, that free enterprise is alive and well… God Bless America!!!
John Miglautsch
Executive Director
International Society for Strategic Marketing, Ltd.
Hartland, WI
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I think that people’s ignorance should be met with indignant silence. It deserves no acknowledgement.
We have more important things to do like be effective and to make our users wealthy. We could, in our spare time, come up with a name for ineffective TV ads as a comeback, which relates to all of the above.
Albert Saxon
Saxon Marketing,
Indian Orchard, MA
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Are you referring to the hardcopy, oversized, “tree-killer” publications with all those sections no one reads, the one’s who subscriber bases are “downsizing” at record pace, like rats deserting a sinking ship? The one’s who, when I ask for “Sunday only”…. give me the rest of the week (scattered in plastic bags who knows where on my lawn or in my gardens) as a “bonus”? The one’s whose “home delivery” prices have dropped so low, their next move is to pay people to take it? Are those destroyers of all that is green the one’s referring to direct mail as “junk”?
Alas, is that not akin to the pot and the kettle syndrome? If the alleged “reporters” in those hackneyed, anachronistic were half as good as you, they (especially the NY out of Times) would not have to borrow much of the news they seem required to print. Then maybe people would read them again.
Not that I have an opinion.
Mark Amtower
Amtower & Co
Highland MD
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I prefer the term: “Job Mail.” There are a lot of jobs that depend on these mailings.
Al Stanton
Stanton Direct Marketing
Elmira, NY
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