Ad Nauseam

I absolutely despise junk mail.

So I got a piece of mail from my bank. It looked just like any statements, important notice or other piece of mail I get from them. I opened it and find not the trusted correspondence I expect, but a letter saying something to the effect of, "we know what you really want is some insurance, like this here partner of ours."

In other words, the direct mailers know that we just toss their junk away without opening it, so they have to have someone we trust pass it along as a Trojan Horse.

The other mail I got? A Discover Card offering - with no return address or other identifying marks. It's just like the one I got last month and the month before, so I felt confident enough to toss it without opening. If I haven't taken them up on the offer the last eight or ten times, why this one?

So here's my plan. We put up a website, something like "noiwontbuyit.com." Users sign their names to a virtual pledge to never buy from companies from whom they have received junk mail. They can build a list of companies who have sent them junk, along with a tally of sales they have avoided. In turn, the site can keep a wall of shame list of top offenders and a running total of sales lost.

Sure, it's a publicity stunt. It'll still make me feel better.