Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Weak mailer

I used to work in the political direct mail business. Not everything we did was brilliant, but we tried to put some thought and effort into mailers. So I was somewhat disheartened when I received this mailer, paid for by the RNSC, the other day:A few critiques:
  1. If the RNSC is really hurting for funds and needs to protect incumbents like Liddy Dole, why are they wasting money by sending pro-gun, pro-Republican mailers to me? How lousy are these lists?
  2. There is very little stuff specific to Udall or Colorado in the mailer. It comes off like a cookie-cutter guns mailer, onto which one can paste pretty much any Democrat's picture. I'm guessing that's what it is. Pretty cheap.
  3. Why is Udall wearing a pink shirt? Are they suggesting that, in addition to (or because of) his support for handgun control, Udall is gay? That's a reach.

4 comments:

Steve Balboni said...

I got one too. I'd love to know where they pulled this list from. A total waste of resources.

AnnM said...

We (in VA) got a printout repeating a half-dozen times, "We just can't afford Barack Obama," along with various incredibly misleading statements about Obama's tax policy, conflating marginal and average tax rates.

It was ludicrous on so many dimensions:
a) my lecture on tax policy this morning explicating these concepts,
b) AS IF Democrats in this neighborhood vote their pocketbook,
c) Obama/Biden sign out front (why waste the ink?)

My neighbor has a sign that reads, "Drill here, drill now, pay less." I just wonder that he is not embarrassed by it.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he's got oil under his patio, and that's actually a service tender?

Seth Masket said...

In the RNSC's defense, I was, for a time, registered as an independent, and I also briefly subscribed to Cigar Afficionado. Perhaps they have some lifestyle data that would tag me as persuadable on the gun issue?

I am also informed by a friend that it's sometimes cheaper just to send a piece of mail to everyone than to fine tune the list.