Direct Mail is always targeted, and will be personally addressed to YOU. Junk Mail is untargeted and addressed to “The Folks At”, or “Our Neighbors”, or “The Current Resident”.

I guarantee you that I was the ONLY one on my block to receive the NRDC mailing, because of a prior relationship I have had with them. They only started sending me direct mail when I initiated and established a relationship with them first.

The campaign to Stop Junk Mail which Leo has endorsed on his web site is just like the Do No Call Registry. The Do Not Call Registry was established to stop unsolicited phone calls from companies that are trying to solicit new business. But, companies in which you have already done business with or have had a prior relationship with are still allowed to call you.

I do agree that Direct Mail has been given a bad reputation because of overuse and unfortunately people perceive all Direct Mail as Junk Mail, and its Internet equivalent as “spam”. But it has always boiled down to the fact that Direct Mail has always been a numbers game. A 1% to 2% response rate has always been considered successful, so frequent mailings are a must in order to receive more donations.

Direct mail is still the most effective and efficient marketing tool that organizations like NRDC can use to reach current and potential donators which they heavily rely on in order for them to continue to fight for our environmental future.

I still remember this from my marketing courses in college. The goal of direct mail has 4-parts: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action – or AIDA. Ever heard of Giuseppi Verdi’s famous opera called “Aida”? Aida is the name of the heroine. She not only gained the ATTENTION of her boyfriend, Radames, but she also stimulated his INTEREST, provoked his DESIRE, and got him to take ACTION.

Okay, I admit I had way TOO much free time today. lol

But I remain skeptical that it affects a majority of people who are overweight. For most, diet and exercise is the main factor and less genetics.

I’d like to point out that there is some truth in that quote. I personally am an extremely thin person and only through weight lifting I managed to gain some weight; I can eat all day and never gain fat, apparently due to my hyperhigh metabolism.

On the other hand, my nephew is now 12 years old and he’s extremely fat, even though his mother’s put him on a very strict diet with no junk food, and he goes to swimming school three times a week.

While I don’t agree with the criticism of Wall-E based on how it depicts humans (there is some NASA research saying that humans WOULD look like that after 700 yeasr living in zero-G), I also don’t agree with your skeptic point of view to genetic obesity. We aren’t nearly close to understanding the human genetic code; is it so hard to believe there’s a gene that controls metabolic rates?

I’m not saying campaigns of this nature do not work, but I question why they decided to send another one so soon after the first.

This packet I received from the NRDC and Leonardo got me to make a donation, so their campaign worked. Now I carry my Save the Polar Bear! shopping bag with me everywhere. I actually get asked questions where I got the bag, and I will happily tell them all about the NRDC. So once again their campaign WORKED!

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x99/PropertyPhotos/BiteME_naysayers.jpg