Fun_People Archive
23 Jan
risks of direct marketing!

Date: Mon, 23 Jan 95 22:17:41 PST
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: risks of direct marketing!

Forwarded-by: tompar@world.std.com (Tom Parmenter)
Forwarded-by: Michael Travers <mt@media.mit.edu>
Subject: risks of direct marketing
From: a Technology Review (7/93) article on sophisticated uses of
      databases for personalizing junk mail:

One clever marketer for an anti-aging cream compiled a list of likely
prospects and mailed out ads with before-and-after pictures with a
personalized note scrawled across the top along the lines of "Kathy--Try
this.  It works.  R."  A recently divorced woman, convinced that the note
came from her ex-husband's new wife, murdered them both.

© 1995 Peter Langston