Sunday, November 11, 2007

Junk Mail Diet Updates

I have two newish habits now. One is stacking the day's catalogs by my computer and signing into CatalogChoice. Odds are, the catalog sender is there and I can click to stop it. My husband reupped for LLBean catalogs, and as a result got on probably a dozen other companies' lists. It's very insidious. It feels great to go in and cut them off, in effect saying NO! I didn't ask for your catalogs and I don't want them!
The second new habit is sneaking off with the catalogs and looking at them, before I recycle them. Catalogs have become such a novelty in my household that they're a guilty pleasure.
World Wildlife Federation's new catalog-killer site, catalogchoice.org, is going gangbusters. Companies participate because they get a free weblink - they're happy to oblige your desire to cut the catalogs in hopes you will visit their sites. Your profile is stored there, so you can see when you declined a catalog. So you can check back and see if it's been 10 weeks, since it's really a bummer when they keep coming. You can also do this through greendimes, for a fee. Below is the email I recently received from CatalogChoice, including a link to their video.

As a registered member of Catalog Choice, we wanted to send you some
news:
1. Thanks to you, we've had more than 100,000 people signup in the
first 28 days, opting-out of over 800,000 catalogs. That is
simply amazing. Together, we are going to improve our lives and conserve our
planet's natural resources!
2. You asked, we listened. Immediately available is a list of all
catalogs, for those that prefer browsing to searching. We hope
this makes it easier to find your catalogs.
3. We're working with the merchants to process your opt-out requests.
It's too late in the mailing season to reduce the number of
holiday catalogs, but you will see a reduction in unwanted
catalogs starting in 2008, and continuing thereafter.
4. Catalog Choice has received national attention. The New York
Times, Yahoo, Good Morning America, NBC, and have a look at the
CNN spot:
http://blog.catalogchoice.org/2007/10/22/live-from-cnn/
5. Spread the word. We need a million users to reach our initial goal
of establishing a critical mass on a national level. Here's how
you can help:
- Use the "Invite Friends" area on the website. If each of you
invite just 10 people, we'll have a million!
- Ask your local media to promote the service (TV, radio,
newspapers, etc.)
- Paste a Catalog Choice badge on your website or blog. You can
get them here: http://www.catalogchoice.org/#about
Thanks again so much for your support.
Sincerely,
The Catalog Choice Team
http://catalogchoice.org | You Decide What Gets In.


image: Conrad Bakker's "Untitled: Mail Order Catalog"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your first link to catalogchoice.org goes to another location. I thought you might want to fix that.