Monday, June 18, 2007
PRIVACY, PLEASE
The people from whom I bought my house last year obviously haven't given change-of-address info to everyone who writes them. I still receive a lot of their mail which I dutifully put into my doorside mailbox for them to pick up.
Last week the Canadian Food for the Hungry International sent them a colourful DM package. The envelope is quite nicely done, with full colour drawings of little kids holding balloons. The teaser printed on the OE reads, "Celebrate!!!"
You feel happy just holding the envelope in your hand.
My problem with it? The front features a second window with a message showing through: "Special card for your sponsored children enclosed!"
So now I know that they sponsor a child through this organization. Maybe that's nothing to be concerned about. Or maybe, to them, it is. Maybe they don't want other people knowing where they spend their charitable dollars. I wouldn't.
If I were CFHI, I'd err on the side of caution so my donors wouldn't have to risk a new homeowner learning details about their lives...and I wouldn't have to risk losing a loyal donor because they perceive me to be a blabbermouth.
COOKED UP VERBIAGE
I also received a postcard addressed to some other people who used to own my house. (They preceded the child-sponsor owners by several years.)
Since I don't know where these people moved to, I can't forward it to them. And since it's a postcard, I didn't feel too much like a verbal peeping Tom by reading it. And since it contains some perplexing wording, I thought I'd share it with you.
It's from Saladmaster® which, I learned from their web site, sells cooking items like pots and pans. And as I learned from the postcard, they must be some kind of Tupperware-like organization. The postmark is from Milwaukee but the contact name on the card features a BC (my home province) phone number. And they talk about how I should visit my "local Saladmaster Dealership."
What got me in the beginning was the headline on the addressing side of the postcard: "Win $1000 of FREE Saladmaster." At that point I didn't know who or what a Saladmaster was. But the logo didn't use the word at all. It had a big LC and the words, "Life Changers" on it. The return address was: Life Changers, 230 Westway Place 101, Arlington, Texas.
Who, I wanted to know, was mailing the former owners of my house? And where does the sender operate from? Milwaukee? BC? Texas?
The headline on the back read, "$1000 of FREE Saladmaster...Can you handle it?" That sounded ominous to me. Is there some problem with winning a grand's worth of Saladmaster, I wanted to know.
The salutation read, "Dear Life Changer." But if you'll recall, their logo said, "Life Changers". Are they talking to themselves? If not, and if their products change people's lives, shouldn't they be calling their customers "Life Changees"?
Adding to my culinary confusion, the card is signed by someone named "Saladmaster", with the words,"Life Changer Owner's Club" written underneath.
Despite my curiosity, I'm not going to register online to enter their contest. I don't know, if I won, whether I could "handle it".
After all, I'm not Gordon Ramsay. I'm just...
Dr. Bob
b_knight@telus.net
The people from whom I bought my house last year obviously haven't given change-of-address info to everyone who writes them. I still receive a lot of their mail which I dutifully put into my doorside mailbox for them to pick up.
Last week the Canadian Food for the Hungry International sent them a colourful DM package. The envelope is quite nicely done, with full colour drawings of little kids holding balloons. The teaser printed on the OE reads, "Celebrate!!!"
You feel happy just holding the envelope in your hand.
My problem with it? The front features a second window with a message showing through: "Special card for your sponsored children enclosed!"
So now I know that they sponsor a child through this organization. Maybe that's nothing to be concerned about. Or maybe, to them, it is. Maybe they don't want other people knowing where they spend their charitable dollars. I wouldn't.
If I were CFHI, I'd err on the side of caution so my donors wouldn't have to risk a new homeowner learning details about their lives...and I wouldn't have to risk losing a loyal donor because they perceive me to be a blabbermouth.
COOKED UP VERBIAGE
I also received a postcard addressed to some other people who used to own my house. (They preceded the child-sponsor owners by several years.)
Since I don't know where these people moved to, I can't forward it to them. And since it's a postcard, I didn't feel too much like a verbal peeping Tom by reading it. And since it contains some perplexing wording, I thought I'd share it with you.
It's from Saladmaster® which, I learned from their web site, sells cooking items like pots and pans. And as I learned from the postcard, they must be some kind of Tupperware-like organization. The postmark is from Milwaukee but the contact name on the card features a BC (my home province) phone number. And they talk about how I should visit my "local Saladmaster Dealership."
What got me in the beginning was the headline on the addressing side of the postcard: "Win $1000 of FREE Saladmaster." At that point I didn't know who or what a Saladmaster was. But the logo didn't use the word at all. It had a big LC and the words, "Life Changers" on it. The return address was: Life Changers, 230 Westway Place 101, Arlington, Texas.
Who, I wanted to know, was mailing the former owners of my house? And where does the sender operate from? Milwaukee? BC? Texas?
The headline on the back read, "$1000 of FREE Saladmaster...Can you handle it?" That sounded ominous to me. Is there some problem with winning a grand's worth of Saladmaster, I wanted to know.
The salutation read, "Dear Life Changer." But if you'll recall, their logo said, "Life Changers". Are they talking to themselves? If not, and if their products change people's lives, shouldn't they be calling their customers "Life Changees"?
Adding to my culinary confusion, the card is signed by someone named "Saladmaster", with the words,"Life Changer Owner's Club" written underneath.
Despite my curiosity, I'm not going to register online to enter their contest. I don't know, if I won, whether I could "handle it".
After all, I'm not Gordon Ramsay. I'm just...
Dr. Bob
b_knight@telus.net
posted by DoctorBob | 11:44 AM
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