Even The New York Times calls it junk mail:
Over the last year, marketers sent more than 114 billion pieces of direct mail — catalogues, credit card solicitations, coupons and the like — an increase of roughly 15 percent from five years ago, according to the United States Postal Service. And in the last year, for the first time, the volume of bulk mail, which is all direct mail, exceeded first class.
Advertisers like it that mail ads, which do not get snagged in spam filters, can be aimed at just the right customers and be monitored for effectiveness. Those traits are increasingly important to companies as they slice and dice the American public into finer and finer categories.
“As the world becomes more digital, there is a need for tangible experiences,” said Rob Bagot, executive creative director at McCann Worldgroup San Francisco, a part of the Interpublic Group. “And there’s nothing like a piece of paper.”
Yup, nothing like a piece of paper. Particularly in Colorado, where a Republican Congressional candidate sent a flyer out designed to look like a official sex offender notification. Instead, the flyer was all about how his opponent was supposedly soft on crime.
I pulled this from the TV station’s report:
Political consultant Katy Atkinson said the ad isn’t that unusual.
“You have to get people’s attention. The airwaves are crowded. Mailboxes are crowded,” said Atkinson. “So you have to do something to have your information stand out, so that’s often why fear is employed.”
This dribble above is a nothign more than a lame rationalization for manipulating people.
Restraint. It’s a marvelous thing. Too bad it’s so out of fashion.