Isn't It Time to Cut the Crap?

Have you ever thought about why it seems to be acceptable to bother people just because you are already in possession of or can get access to their contact information? I am not talking about nefarious elements of society, but legitimate businesses, or businesses that claim legitimacy.

What I am talking about is advertising. Advertising is defined on Wikipedia as: 'an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea.' Please note the term 'non-personal' in the definition. Before your thinking immediately derails, I am not going to argue to abandon advertising completely, how else would I be able to find out about the latest useless invention corporate America wants me to purchase?

I want to ask a fundamental question: Who gives advertises the right to contact anyone directly?

We could talk about billboards, signs, posters etc... but other than littering the landscape they are easy to ignore. The same holds true for the ubiquitous messaging in stores and airports for example. I am even willing to ignore the weekly trash delivery by the post office that helps to keep the USPS in business. However, the posters, billboards, storefronts and advertising in airports are located on someone else's property, while the postal delivery reaches my mailbox, a piece of real estate I own and am paying for. So why is it, that even though I wish not to receive such mail pieces, there is no way to stop their delivery?

Herein lies the rub, advertisers are assuming that just because they can contact you, they have the right to do so, and apparently so does the post office... I happen to disagree, and here is why:

Let's stick with the mail example for a minute and look at its more modern equivalent, email. Worldwide the laws governing unsolicited emails are getting stricter and stricter, for example all marketing pieces must now include an unsubscribe link, clearly state who sent the email, and many Internet providers and hosting services don't even allow their customers to send spam. Apparently, we all agree that unsolicited email is a problem, so why then, are we not treating unsolicited snail mail the same way?

It is still fairly easy to ignore mail, if you for a moment ignore that it would be smart to shred every mail piece that has your name and address on it, but how about unsolicited calls? If you live in the US you probably got a call that started out something like this: 'This is Ami with Credit Card Services. This is your final notice...,' I know, whatever. These types of robocalls are illegal, and do-not-call lists abound, none of these shady outfits seem to care. Sadly, the phone is much harder to ignore than snail mail, therefore unsolicited calls are more distracting than any unwanted mail piece. Again, here is the rub, I am paying to have phone service, why should anyone be allowed to use a service I am paying for, for their personal gain?

While your friendly neighborhood bank assumes the right to contact you at their leisure, many times they demand payment should you, dear valued customer, need anything from them. Not really fair play, isn't it?

When you really think about it becomes immediately clear that advertisers simply assume the right to contact everybody, so do non-profits, charities, etc... be that by phone, mail, mobile phone, SMS, you name it. At one point in the past some clever person came up with the idea and gave it a try, and we all have to live with the consequences of that fateful experiment ever since. Isn't it time to put an end to this nonsense?

The FTC is attempting to do just that in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on May 31, 2018. However, this action does nothing to stop political parties or charities from calling as those calls are considered legal. Legal or not, the solution may be simpler than you think. Just consider for a moment what would happen if we collectively stoped responding to advertisements? Most of us already tune out banner ads, billboards, TV commercials, or your local car dealer offering you extra cash if you just agree to buy another car. Why not take the mail pieces directly to the shredder and stop answering phone calls from numbers you don't recognize? Advertisers only need a tiny fraction of people to respond positively; isn't it time to stop being that asshole that keeps them in business and the rest of us annoyed?

Image by David Evers