Stuff It!
In my community, we don't get door to door mail delivery. Each resident has a Post Office box at the center of town, and we are responsible to pick it up ourselves. I have no problem with this obvious cost cutting measure. I walk to the post office with the same anticipation I used to walk to the mailbox. I am still however, quite upset with the myriad of junk mail that I receive. Especially frustrating is the personally addressed letters advertising anything from credit cards to life and death charities. They look like real mail, but they're not.

I've finally decided that I've had enough. A while ago I read some email spam (ironic as it is) which planted the seed of vengeance in my mind. It seemed that the best response to receiving their garbage was to send them my own garbage. It's easier and cheaper than you might think. Most often, these personally addressed promotions include a postage paid envelope. What I do, usually right there in the post office after I get my mail, is put all the papers they just mailed to me (plus some other stuff if it fits: flyers, candy bar wrappers, other junk mail), lick it, seal it, and send it back to them.

I think it's a healthy protest. It gives money to Canada Post they wouldn't otherwise get. My name is already on the papers I'm sending back to them, so it's not anonymous (you don't have to put your name on it if you don't want to). It's an obvious expression of displeasure, so I'm not just being a nuisance.

Now, I know that the CEO of Capital One doesn't open my junk filled envelopes and become ridden with guilt. It's likely someone paid minimum wage who reads my personal information from the application into the computer and opens the next letter. I doubt this person communicates my protest to their superior. They might though, and their superior might tell their superior. Even if my opinions aren't expressed to key decision makers by word of mouth, it is communicated financially. Their advertising campaign becomes more expensive, and that little bit less worthwhile.

I know that I won't single-handedly take down the practice of advertising via unrequested mail. If lots of other people starting doing the same, we might. Even if we don't, it still feels really good, therapeutic even, to stuff their return envelopes and mail their garbage back to themselves. Checking my mail is fun again.

   [ posted by William @ 11:28 AM ]