A Bite of the Big Apple

Having just swung back from the Big Apple (he said, ever-so-gloatingly!), I have to say that, as a city, New York never ceases to amaze me – what with all the buzz, the arrogance, the sheer scale and 24 hour culture.

This wasn’t just a downtime jaunt, however. I was speaking to a bunch of senior US marketers at a conference – trying to enlighten them in typically insensitive manner about how backward and downright inept data hygiene is, States-side. For a nation that mails 100 billion pieces of DM a year (that’s 868 per household, folks), it seems utterly implausible that their suppression industry barely exists.

It’s bad enough that the deceased and home-movers are being bombarded unnecessarily, but must shocking of all is the fact that 40 billion pieces of DM are being poured into US landfills unopened. Long story short: Almost 50 per cent of US DM is discarded and never read. Appalling, no?

My views on the UK’s rather shoddy suppression rates and attitudes to consumers are well documented, but compared to our American cousins, we’re paragons of best practice virtue. Keep up the good work, everyone.

PS. Great news that Jack Straw’s much-cherished Clause 152 of his Coroners and Justice Bill has gone to whatever inner circle of hell is reserved for ill-conceived legislation. The unfettered exchange of personal information across Whitehall and beyond that this Clause would have permitted really was a step too far, in my opinion.