Archives and Categories


July 15th, 2004

Archives

Categories

‘); ?>

Other | Comments Off

(BRM) Ethics and Safety


July 15th, 2004

|| Project details
| What is Business Reply Mail (BRM)?
| Spam / Some Math…
| Ethics and Safety

Ethics and safety

When a BRM Card or Envelope comes to you, feel free to use it in any manner you choose. Ethics are interpretive, but try to use some common sense and an ethical approach to what you do with it. Listed below are the rule of thumb ethics I abide by as well as some safety tips.

  • Small Businesses are generally one step above the regular 9-5 wage earner. Provided they don’t abuse their advertising and or self promotion with BRM, I generally leave them out of the mix. This does not mean that they are out permanently, just until they misbehave. BRM is an evil that small companies often must deal with to get off the ground.
  • Unsolicited BRM is often “hands off”. If you are standing in the grocery and there is a pile of “How are we doing?” cards, those don’t fit the bill. They aren’t forcing it on you, why take something useful and be malicious about it. On the same note, the guy at the dept store who pushes you to take a pamphlet, the cards that fall out of the magazine while you are standing in line, the spam in your home mailbox, those are all fair game as far as I am concerned.
  • Proactively removing “fall out” cards from store magazines is OK. Most store employees and managers will allow you to do this as they would have to clean them up otherwise. A few stores i frequent actually collect them and save them for me.
    • You need to be careful what you send. Not just for your safety but for that of the postal workers and mailroom people where the BRM will be received.

     Don’t send: patriot1.jpg

  • Anything with sharp edges or moving parts
  • Food or objects that decompose (or are already decomposing)
  • Anything that could be construed as dangerous or a health hazard

    • Remember, that anything you send could be used against you by the government under the Patriot Act, so I generally hold to the rule of thumb “Wonder if it is ok? it probably isn’t..” Keep in mind that political commentary isn’t illegal yet, so no fear voicing your opinion.

    About Us, projects | Comments Off

    What is Business Reply Mail (BRM)?


    July 15th, 2004

    || Project details
    | What is Business Reply Mail (BRM)?
    | Spam / Some Math…
    | Ethics and Safety

    What is Business Reply Mail (BRM)? What’s the point to all of this?

    Business Reply Mail (BRM) is a collection tool, a “fill-in-the-blank” form. Once mailed (and received) it is charged to a company as part of their bulk mail fees. Depending on where you live, this process may also be referred to as Freepost or reply paid mail. The companies that will eventually pay the postal service for these mailers use BRM as a tool to spam society with marketing paperwork. BRM is often used as a tool of convenience for consumers to easily send companies packages, but without making the end-user pay for the shipping postage; Examples of this would be mailing back legal forms, printer cartridges, customer service comment cards.In the scope of this project, BRM has lost it’s intended good nature and has become a menace. To counteract this menace, we use it as an outlet for writing, quotes, collage, paint, photography, found art display, random conversations, and bizarre things we think people somewhere may get a kick out of. The idea is to take some creative approach to the alteration or “fill-in” of BRM and then simply send it back to them.Why do we do this?

  • Ultimately, to have fun.
  • To squeeze a few pennies from the offending companies.
  • Bring a little awareness to the idiocy of the BRM spam methods.
  • Stress management for both ourselves and to put smiles on the faces of would be gun toting mail carriers…

    • We want to make people feel something. We don’t care if it is anger, happiness, humor, annoyance… WHATEVER. Each person who handles the cards while in the mail has to interact with it, they are part of the project by processing it. You could be pissing someone off or making their day. hail eris.

    The end result is to send mail back to companies with something besides the intended consumer information. This is not a new idea. For years, I have read about and heard rumors of people mailing their trash, shredded documents, bricks, etc. I have a close friend who used to process mail for a CC company, and he has described items they received at times.

    There is a fair amount of elbow room in what can be sent, but there are certain restrictions. The trick is to color inside the lines (so to speak). As long as you stay in the lines (or close proximity to them), you can make your elephant purple and no one can tell you that you are in the wrong.

    BRM as an outlet for art is legal.

    About Us, projects | Comments Off

    (BRM) Spam / Some Math


    July 1st, 2004

    || Project details||
    | What is Business Reply Mail (BRM)? |
    | Spam / Some Math…
    | Ethics and Safety

    Spam and Math…
    Question:
     Do we like it when we get unsolicited junk mail with our names on it through the postal service, internet, cell phones, and magazines? How about other sources which seem to be creeping up on us daily?Answer:
     Of course we don’t like it, but the companies who send this information could give a rats ass what we like/dislike. Their concern is to keep subscription rates up, and or replace lost subscribers with new subscribers. Their concern is the churn rate and nothing else. When Adele (see artists section) originally turned me on to this idea, we wondered why it was ok for them to spam us but not the reverse.You may be thinking “C’mon, it cant be that bad.. can it?”.Let’s use People Magazine as a reference point:

    People Magazine had well over 2 million subscribers in 2002.

  • The average People subscription cost $109 annually.
  • People magazine is published weekly and sold to subscribers for right around $2 an issue.
  • Half of the magazine is advertisements.
  • The magazine charges a readership rate fee to advertisers. Based on the number of readers, ad space prices climb.
  • Many of the “articles” are really paid for by (literally or via perks) companies marketing their product.
  • A tendency to have 2-4 reply cards securely stapled into their mags is common.
  • They are kind enough to also include 2-6 loose cards that fall out at random points.

    • Time for a little Math:
    At this point, they have made their money but still want more subscribers (makes sense, they want to sweeten their already sweet deal). Remember that these are low estimates based on 2002 data (found via google). These calculation does not include weekly in-store sales, instead focusing only on mailed subscriptions.

  • 2,000,000 subscriptions * avg 4 cards per issue * 52 weeks a year = 416 MILLION little scraps of paper.
  • 2,000,000 Subscriptions * $109 = $218,000,000 a year from subscriptions alone.Most of these cards are on 1st run, new (non-recycled) paper which is likely to be thrown in the trash
    The above (loose) figures do not take into account advertiser revenue per issue.The news magazine “The Nation” is even worse than people when it comes to reply mail, incorporating 8-10 per issue as well as weekly mailings when you choose to unsubscribe. Regardless of my political affiliation, this is absurd and unwarranted. They deserve to have some of this Spam returned, but altered to make it better, unique, and beautiful in some manner.
    • About Us, projects | Comments Off