Everyone should subscribe to an old-school press release feed. Yea, it’s not as customizable, as say – Topix.net or as hip as Technorati (heck, most of them don’t even know blogs exist), but they’re always good for a few weird human interest stories, if not some humor.

Ever yday my PR Newswire feed treats me to such headlines as:

• Father’s Day Dating Tips for the Single Dad
• New Survey Indicates Teens Troubled by Embarrassing Perspiration
• Children with Maple Syrup Urine Disease (huh?)

Every once in a while there’s something that’s relevant to what I do, such as this releasefrom US Postmaster General John E. Potterdiscounting the safety and effectiveness of email and urging marketers to “Use the mail. It works.”

Not sure whether to laugh or cry at the silliness of that statement, or the fact the US Postal Service feels it even needs to be made. It reminds me of other vagaries like “Wherever you go, there you are” and “Of all the companies out there, we’re one of them”.

The latter was the tone of much of the ad copy I wrote during a one-month stint as a freelance copywriter for Microsoft, where their lawyers prohibited us from saying anything regarding their products being cheaper, better, or faster than the competition. Take that away, and you’re left with statements like “We’re here” and “Hello, this product exists.” But I digress.

The USPS’s press release makes several points about the efficacy of mail as a marketing medium, stating that other forms of advertising don’t share the same capabilities. Here are a few choice quotes from Postmaster Potter:

• “Mail can be personalized, tailored to the needs and interests of small groups, even individuals, in contrast to ‘one-size-fits-all’ advertising.” – Last time I checked, PPC advertising does all this and then some. Most junk mail doesn’t know if I’m male/female/rich/poor/etc.
• “And while 57 percent of households say they
  check their e-mail only once a week, 98 percent of households collect and assess what’s in their mailboxes everyday.” – Is Potter living on Planet Earth? A recent AOL study says we’re all addicts, checking it as much as 5 times a day.
• “Advertising mail is a bargain as well. A
  typical piece of presorted advertising mail costs 18.2 cents…It gets opened and viewed by one or more household members who can put it aside to look at it again.”- Let’s forget for a second that 18 cents is an unbelievably low estimate for direct mail. It’s still huge compared to the penny a click many search engines charge and your average email blast. As for setting junk mail aside to look at it later – I don’t know about you guys, but I mount mine in a scrapbook and take it out for those special moments when I’m feeling blue. Dear Valued Customer: – awww… someone cares!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 17th, 2005 at 11:22 am and is filed under Publishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.