E-mail v. Paper Mail

"Hail to 20th Century Advertising"

When I got up this morning I put on my nice Vasque boots. I knew they were Vasque because they are marked Vasque right on the side. I got dressed (all items of clothing properly marked) and went out the door. In my hall the campus event board is directly outside my door, so each morning the first thing I get to look at is the overwhelming amount of fliers for campus activities that I have no interest in at all. When I get into the elevator I notice that someone has scratched the letters of their favorite fraternity into the paint. I walk out of the elevator and pass a clearly labeled drink machine. I finally get out of my dorm and step out into the brisk air. As I'm walking to Dalton Hall I notice that the person in front of me is wearing a JanSport book bag and a North Face jacket. I know this because they were both clearly marked. When I get to Dalton Hall I see an advertisement for this weeks movie, a few advertisements for some other miscellaneous things and then I am safely into the cafeteria. As I'm swiping my card I read something about Lean Cuisine. When I sit at my table and start eating I see in front of me a stack of table tents that clearly mark their creators. When I finish with breakfast, I go to my office. When I checked my e-mail I found about three "junk e-mail" messages. Finally! I thought to myself. Something I can control! So I happily hit the delete key and I didn't even have to read the message.

The unfortunate thing about advertising is that we are constantly getting used to where it appears and how it reaches. Because of this advertisers have to find new ways to get peoples attention. Up until now, all of these methods of advertising and marketing have been things that are difficult to control. We cant make highway billboard signs disappear, or remove labels from everyone's clothing. I know because I've tried. But now that advertisers are using e-mail to market their products and services we can control how much we see. Simply deleting the message gives us control over what we see.

Another important aspect of the use of e-mail as a method of advertising is that it reduces the amount of paper waste. Would you rather get junk mail or junk e-mail? For a long time I said that I would rather have junk mail, but when you consider that;

ONE TON OF RECYCLED PAPER SAVES:
Seventeen Trees, Three Cubic Yards of Landfill Waste, 7,000 Gallons of Water, 4100 kWh of Electricity (enough to power the average home for 6 months), 60 Pounds of Pollution from the Atmosphere, and Natural Resources from Being Turned into Landfills (EPA).

I figure I would rather not get paper mail at all! My recommendation is to recycle paper because you should, and recycle data because it's fun.

What do you think? Leave your feedback below.

Name:   

E-Mail: 
Year:   

Major:  

Comments: