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Unfortunately most of annoying marketing actually is producing results, which is why people are using it. But I am with you in that, that for all the money mar

Unfortunately most of annoying marketing actually is producing results, which is why people are using it. But I am with you in that, that for all the money marketing people are getting, they could be more creative how to get our attention and how to reach us. Most of them just repeat over and over same old stuff, whether it is direct mail, spamming your inbox or retargeting.

anigbrowl 10y ago
Oh I don't want them to be more creative. At least the more predictable they are the easier I can filter their bullshit out. What I really hate is the arms race for attention. For example I got really annoyed some years ago when fonts got good enough that marketing people started sending out mail that to a casual glance looked to have a hand-written address - naturally people are more inclined to open a hand-written letter first since it appears to be a personal rather that commercial communication. Then a year or two back someone tried to launch a startup here - without much success, thank heavens - that paid people (poorly) to actually write out addresses and even letters by hand, so that people could receive 'genuine' hand-written mail from businesses they were dealing with, which would appear to be a personal thank-you note from the CEO or whatever. Happily most other HN readers were similarly dismayed and the founder was excoriated, though I'm sure the business lives on and is probably profitable given the economic incentives. Living in the US, I really don't think that full first amendment protections should extend to corporations or commercial speech. Sure, corporations are legal persons (for some very valid reasons), but that personhood should be severely limited - after all, we wouldn't allow corporations to start launching artillery shells at each other on the theory that they deserved second amendment rights (in the USA obviously). I don't favor pre-emptive censorship, but I do favor the idea that deceptive commercial speech should expose the dishonest speaker to severe civil damages as punishment for seeking to exploit public trust mechanisms for private asymmetrical gain.
- btown 10y ago
  You would be dismayed to see https://www.google.com/search?q=handwritten+letters+online&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari https://www.google.com/search?q=handwritten+letters+online&i...

anigbrowl 10y ago

Oh I don't want them to be more creative. At least the more predictable they are the easier I can filter their bullshit out. What I really hate is the arms race for attention. For example I got really annoyed some years ago when fonts got good enough that marketing people started sending out mail that to a casual glance looked to have a hand-written address - naturally people are more inclined to open a hand-written letter first since it appears to be a personal rather that commercial communication. Then a year or two back someone tried to launch a startup here - without much success, thank heavens - that paid people (poorly) to actually write out addresses and even letters by hand, so that people could receive 'genuine' hand-written mail from businesses they were dealing with, which would appear to be a personal thank-you note from the CEO or whatever. Happily most other HN readers were similarly dismayed and the founder was excoriated, though I'm sure the business lives on and is probably profitable given the economic incentives. Living in the US, I really don't think that full first amendment protections should extend to corporations or commercial speech. Sure, corporations are legal persons (for some very valid reasons), but that personhood should be severely limited - after all, we wouldn't allow corporations to start launching artillery shells at each other on the theory that they deserved second amendment rights (in the USA obviously). I don't favor pre-emptive censorship, but I do favor the idea that deceptive commercial speech should expose the dishonest speaker to severe civil damages as punishment for seeking to exploit public trust mechanisms for private asymmetrical gain.

btown 10y ago
You would be dismayed to see https://www.google.com/search?q=handwritten+letters+online&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari https://www.google.com/search?q=handwritten+letters+online&i...