http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/11/forestethics-speaks-out-on-junk-mail/ Business, Better. Since 2005 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:05:57 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/11/forestethics-speaks-out-on-junk-mail/comment-page-1/#comment-9943 Joshua Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:46:24 +0000 http://www.triplepundit.com/wordpress/2008/11/forestethics-speaks-out-on-junk-mail/#comment-9943 It was great to read about this particular environmental issue, this intersection of bad marketing and bad ecological practice, and the possibility of a solution. Part of my vision in InspiringWebCopy is to have the world be a beautiful place, by having the web be an ugly place. What that means is that the web is a place where we can put all our advertising so it doesn't have to take up mental space in the physical world--billboards, print ads, commercials eating your time on TV--and, of course, junk mail. It hadn't occurred to me that this also would mean significantly less trees used and CO2 released! We all know businesses lose when they advertise to an unwilling audience as compared to when they advertise to "qualified leads" (that is, to people who actually have an appetite or are actively seeking the thing they sell). Junk mail is ultimately a losing proposition for the business doing it as well as for the unwilling recipient. I want to put out the ideal I can see at this point: the consumer wants to buy something wonderful, so she/he goes on line to find the directory of "ads" for that kind of thing and reads through them to find the greenest, best competitor and the one that most closely matches her/his unique need. The producer meanwhile trusts that the consumer has it together enough, is educated adequately, to know his/her need and to seek out the most excellent product. And we would do what indigenous people have long done (and we all were indigenous people once): actively ask the question, "What gift does this person bring to our community?" and encourage the person's delivery. The presence of junk mail in our society is a testament to the very low opinion we all have, producer and consumer, of our gifts' real value for anyone's happiness. I choose to imagine a much better world, and I know we can attain it. It was great to read about this particular environmental issue, this intersection of bad marketing and bad ecological practice, and the possibility of a solution.
Part of my vision in InspiringWebCopy is to have the world be a beautiful place, by having the web be an ugly place. What that means is that the web is a place where we can put all our advertising so it doesn’t have to take up mental space in the physical world–billboards, print ads, commercials eating your time on TV–and, of course, junk mail. It hadn’t occurred to me that this also would mean significantly less trees used and CO2 released!
We all know businesses lose when they advertise to an unwilling audience as compared to when they advertise to “qualified leads” (that is, to people who actually have an appetite or are actively seeking the thing they sell). Junk mail is ultimately a losing proposition for the business doing it as well as for the unwilling recipient.
I want to put out the ideal I can see at this point: the consumer wants to buy something wonderful, so she/he goes on line to find the directory of “ads” for that kind of thing and reads through them to find the greenest, best competitor and the one that most closely matches her/his unique need. The producer meanwhile trusts that the consumer has it together enough, is educated adequately, to know his/her need and to seek out the most excellent product. And we would do what indigenous people have long done (and we all were indigenous people once): actively ask the question, “What gift does this person bring to our community?” and encourage the person’s delivery. The presence of junk mail in our society is a testament to the very low opinion we all have, producer and consumer, of our gifts’ real value for anyone’s happiness. I choose to imagine a much better world, and I know we can attain it.

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