The onslaught of negative press for direct mail has found its way to the pages of Parade Magazine ( Sunday, 09/16/07). Just as before our industry is being lumped together with on-line city mapping, grocery store shopping cards, sharp divorce lawyers using electronic toll booth records and of all things, the FBI paying phone companies to stockpile phone call information. What they are doing is blurring the lines between “marketing information” and Internet clutter you may have done years ago which could come back to haunt you. There’s a big difference in good customer relations which may include keeping records of past purchases to provide future service, and spying which is what this article alludes to.

I’m sorry but my personal information was compromised when a lap top computer was stolen from one of the offices of the Governor of the State of Connecticut, not from the catalog where I buy my shirts. Get real! Two separate things here people.

I was intrigued by a TV show a few weeks ago. “I-Caught” is the name of the program. It’s on one of the major networks. I was flipping through the channels so I missed the first part of the show but what was interesting to me was the portion on the new way that big brand marketers are using the internet to push their product to the consumer. In fact they don’t “push” the product we, the audience of You-Tube and the ilk, are pushing it for them. They produce a short “ad” video. Make it very catchy and release it to You-Tube. It gets passed around to everyone’s buddy lists and boom 40million hits later your video is world wide. Gone is the budget for print ads, TV media buys and radio. Will this change the face of advertising as we know it?