01-14-09 --OPTING OUT--

Consider Advertising.

The tool of capitalism. The quest to find new customers. Often representing someone's sincere desire to share services or goods in exchange for a livelihood.

The entertainment world has been the vehicle for the presentation of advertising for decades.

Radio has offered such an opportunity to entrepreneurs for almost a century. Only recently has radio existed in a format that can shake off the necessity of supporting this part of the capitalistic landscape.

Some of the most memorable advertising has been exhibited on television and many look forward to the SuperBowl purely for the commercial moments.

Designers and Graphic Artists make a living by creative venture into the world of advertising lending it an aesthetic and entertaining quality.

In its electronic form the hawking of wares on the internet, radio, and TV doesn't threaten the environment or add to the planet's solid wastes.

A person can OptOut by going for snacks during a commercial.
Banners and flashing advertisements on webpages are so common that I seldom even notice them.
I can OptOut of a web site with an overkill of advertising.. I simply leave and don't return.

If an email advertisement is perceived as "junk".. it gets a forced OptOut into the Hotmail Junk Folder or gets sucked into Spam Folders at Gmail and Yahoo. Even though it can pile up into thousands of messages, it remains non-threatening. It does not interject itself into my personal space. It simply sits there to be viewed at my leisure... just in case I want to look for sales or special offers.

Advertising in cyberworld even offers a proactive choice.
To OptOut. To UnSubscribe. To Select "Receive promotional emails" checkbox.

Why then... why o' WHY... doesn't "real world" advertising catch up with this century?

In real life it fills up the too-small space in my mailbox.
I don't want to know how many trees are removed from the earth to support this method of advertising.
Aesthetics and creative energy don't seem to be required.
Recycling is not an option due to the type of treated paper used in most cases.

I never EVER look at this stuff. If I am looking for a "deal", I will either buy a local newspaper or run a Google search or visit Web Sites of the product-type. I am not going to wade through a pile of miscellaneously-sized slick-paper to find out how cheaply I can purchase a can of green beans or a set of sheets. I worry that an important bill or an unanticipated check will be lost among the assemblage of coloured paper.

My poor postman suffers even more. I am out of town for 3-10 days every month.
Upon my return I gingerly open my tiny mailbox stuffed with ragged wads of shiny paper within which resides the possible desired mail.

I am bombarded with this material with no valid recourse.
At some point last year it occurred to me that this stuff has no OptOut option !
...It does not end after 30-60 seconds.
...I can't just click to another spot and leave it behind.
...It remains in my "inbox" after 30 days.
...It requires a physical action to be extracted from my life.

Sooo.. I finally set up my own OptOut method. I created a real world "Junk Folder" for this form of advertising.

Here is the process... inspired by good old Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.

1. Filter Incoming Mail aka Extraction:
I pick up my mail as I drive into the condo complex each evening. My last act in the outside world so-to-speak is the Clearing of my Inbox of the Trash.

2. Set up Spam/Junk Folder:
aka...The back floorboard of my car...just behind the driver's seat.

3. Create a Junk Mail Rule. Set a specific deletion mandate.
----It goes into the gas station trash receptacle every time I stop for gas.

I know that I should be filtering further and holding recyclable paper for the proper bin.
But I am telling you.... In Northern Virginia.. the "Paper Spam" is not on recyclable material !

I have been using this approach for about 8 months and it works quite well actually.

Until last weekend, I thought that it was was quite effective except for my poor mailman who suffers while I rock out in Canada, NYC, or LA. (I should let him know when I will be gone... but I often make last minute plans... poor guy !)

You see, I do have friends in my "real life".. and we decided to go to the theatre on Saturday.

I felt just terrible when I had to put one of my friends... into.. my .... Spam Folder !!!!