Friday, April 06, 2007

Ridiculous junk ads and gimmics


One of my favorite hobbies is collecting magnetic stickers and labels. Attach is a photo shot of my woodland apartment refrigerator with nice stickers. Aren’t they cute?

I am really put off by those junk mails put into my home mailbox almost daily. I have to sort out the junk mails from the rest of the important ones. Sometimes in the fit of agitation and impatience I would end up unknowingly discarding important mails such as bill notifications together with the rest of the junk mails, only to receive reminder mails to settle my outstanding credit card bill payments promptly and urgently.

If you ever subscribe to the Reader’s Digest you would have notice that each month’s printout contains advertising gimmicks and junk notes. First there is the congratulatory note that informs that you are the very few selected lucky readers to enter the grand lucky prize draw. Also attached are ridiculous stickers and labels which states explicitly you need to paste on to the notes and return with the enclosed reply envelope so as to qualify for the grand luck prize draw. What Reader Digest don’t inform the reader is that the chances of being becoming the grand lucky prize draw winner is as good as the Singapore Luck Draw Grand Toto 1st prize chance.

It takes extreme patience to figure out which labels and sticker to place on which reply notes so as to qualify for the grand luck draw! Apart from the grand lucky draw, readers also qualifies to have the opportunity to win other interesting prizes and other side luck draws if they agree to sign up to buy other promotional items listed in the junk ads! One major thing that really piss me off regarding Reader’s Digest advertising gimmick is that they made you to go through almost certain each month’s subscription repeat process of having to reply that you are interested to qualify for the final grand draw sans the rest of the promotional items! Goodness me, can’t Reader’s Digest sees that most people only wish to reply once to indicate that they are interested to be enroll into the grand luck prize draw, which subscriber wouldn’t anyway so why the heck the need to made readers go through each periodic reminder of having to indicate reader’s interest to qualify for the grand lucky?
I like Reader’s Digest; the articles and information are great, I have been an ardent fan of Reader’s Digest since I was a kid. Perhaps it is time for Reader’s Digest to return to its core business, that is of publishing great books and magazines without the stupid junk mails and ads about lucky draws which piss many people off!

Today is a public holiday, Good Friday, so I get the opportunity to take a break from work. Hurrah!









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