I respect the institution of direct-mail marketing that is junk mail. I accept that I will receive junk mail from time to time (including the possibility of daily). But I just received two pieces of junk mail that rub me the wrong way.
First, the pre-approval notices keep coming in for an American Express Blue card. Great, I can sign right up! Wait, I already have an American Express Blue card. Now I'm pre-approved for another one? As Charlie Brown would say, aaaaugh!
Second, I purchased something from the NFL store for someone and it was Patriots gear. Everything was fine except now I receive Patriots store mailings. I don't really like the Patriots, now I keep getting the Patriots junk mail catalog. Super. As if I need to be reminded again and again who the Super Bowl champs are. Side note: I'm getting pessimistic about the Jets given how often the national pundits are talking about their chances for the postseason this year. When the sports talking heads are enthusiastic about your football team, it's not always a good sign.
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2 comments:
As the person somewhat responsible for your Patriots junk mail catalog, I thought I'd pass this along:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/optoutalrt.htm
Supposedly, you can opt out of many types of junk mail. I first heard of this possibility by reading the very small print on one of my pieces of junk mail. Not sure if this is a new thing or not, but being able to prevent any pre-approved lines of credit sounds like a good idea, identity theft-wise.
I've only recently tried this, so I don't know if it actually works. Either way, it definitely won't stop those fantastic Patriots catalogs from coming though...
If I'm not mistaken, I believe they won the Super Bowl 3 out of the last 4 years.
There is an addendum to this story that I left out.
I called the number on the back of the catalog to request being removed from the catalog list. The operator told me that the catalog that I was receiving was just the "standard NFL catalog" and had the Patriots because "the Patriots are popular now because they win a lot." It's true, the catalog says that all the merchandise is available "in styles of all NFL teams" but it really seems like a Patriots catalog. Only two or three pages in the middle seem to acknowledge the existance of other teams. If it was a general NFL catalog, wouldn't you expect to see a variety of NFL teams and their merchandise? The logo in one corner of the catalog is the NFL logo and the logo in the opposite corner is the Patriots team logo. At first I felt stupid for not noticing that the catalog was a generic NFL catalog, but the last few "generic NFL" catalogs have all had a ton of Patriots merchandise. They must be sending me the Patriots version! By the way, I'm also getting mailings for Franklin Mint Patriots novelty items.
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