Comments on: Another Reason Direct Mail Response Is Atrophying

By: Ruth Stevens

Ruth Stevens — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:46:21 +0000

Lee, as I was reading your hilarious story, I was thinking you were going to go in the direction of the new, and unfortunate, trend of people not RSVPing to party invitations. This has been bothering me for a number of years now, because it makes party planning difficult–and it seems to rude to me. OK, just another gripe about how the world is going to hell…The older I get, the more I sound like my mother.

By: Ann Handley

Ann Handley — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:16:55 +0000

For the record, cars of teenagers in my town still seem to enjoy mailboxes for the sport of whacking them with baseball bats occassionally…and I know the snowplow on my street seems to love the sport of taking mine out at least once a winter, as well.
That being said, you’re right, Lee. Snail mail doesn’t seem to have the same signficance it once did. As a kid, we used to wait at the end of the driveway for the pleasure of meeting the mailman on his daily run. And even 10 years ago, when I was working as a home-based freelance writing, a highlight of my day was waiting for the mail to come…there might be a check for an article therein, or a magazine that had published my stuff.
These days, I confess I’m more like your neighbors in the condo association — I have to make an effort to check the mailbox. Times change — and so do we.
p.s. Love this line, “With a wife like this, who needs clients?” : )

By: Lee Marc Stein

Lee Marc Stein — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:50:19 +0000

Lewis, it seems you got the major point of my post. It’s that going to the mailbox has moved from being both a necessary and pleasurable activity to an occasional nuisance. In 1964, when I broke in, advertising mail gave people something to do. Then people no longer looked at it that way, but they went to their mailboxes anyway for their bills. While practitioners of direct mail had to get in the “important mail” pile, at least there was mail. Now most of us get our bills online so there is no attraction to draw us to the mailbox.

By: Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:36:25 +0000

Lewis, you’re dating yourself here! I, too, remember anticipating the mail, especially when that was the only way out of town friends could communicate with me. Long distance calls were prohibitive during the days of monopoly phone companies!
Lee, I think part of the problem is apathy regarding basic etiquette. Ask anyone who’s made a wedding, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a sit-down dinner, etc. and you’ll likely hear about guests who never RSVP’d – at all!
Saying they receive so much direct mail that they missed the invitation is an excuse, I think. Even though some direct mail marketers are now sending their pieces in invitation envelopes without a return address (tricky), it’s pretty hard to miss an upscale, printed invitation to a wedding or a special event.
I remember counting out my cousin and her husband for my son’s Bar Mitzvah when they never answered the invitation. Imagine my surprise when they decided to show – and that was for a sit-down luncheon! There are place settings, table placements, etc. It’s just rude and inconsiderate.
Unfortunately, this behavior has become quite common.

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:48:47 +0000

I am old enough to remember when mail delivery was the most eagerly awaited part of the day. And I had to walk three blocks to the post office and unravel the combination to get my mail.