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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

I have not posted in quite a while, because I have been very busy doing in my store, On the Avenue, which has left little time to talk about it....  I am sure marketers would say that's not the best idea.  But, speaking of marketers, I received something today that just could not go by without comment.  For several years, since I turned 48, I believe, I have been receiving what I call "old fart" offers--from just about every enterprise who thinks they can make a buck off of so-called "baby boomers."  It is like they all went to the same marketing seminar at which they were told, "Don't over look the HUGE potential (to sell, sell, sell) of all those boomers getting old (and, presumably, simple, senile, and/or gullable) at the same time.  Personal information such as age, name, and address, are available as a matter of public record, unfortunately, and one of the very first businesses that sprung up, to try to take advantage was, I am sure, the slimy ones that sell marketing lists.  What I received today, to add to the mountain of solicitations I receive each week, that go directly--unopened--to the rubbish bin, some by way of the shredder, was another credit card offer.  I have sent numerous "Opt-outs" to everybody, as well as requests to not receive offers, to every agency, at every opportunity--to no avail, of course.  This one was from a company that I believe was just recently in the news with some others, for having to pay huge fines for defrauding their card-holders.  Its name contains one word and One number, and not long ago featured a bunch of not-so-bright Vikings in its ads. After today, I wonder if those Vikings may have been played by people from their advertising and promotions department.  The offer suggested I "Check off [my] Bucket List... with [their]...card."  (At 11.9% - 19.9% --VARIABLE--interest, by the way!) As in, "You're gonna die soon, and we have a great idea!You old people travel a lot, right. We want to Capital-ize on all that (and the fact that you have nothing better to do than wander around in groups wearing matching t-shirts). Short-term memory being what it is with you people, you have probably already forgotten what a mess we just made of the economy.  Some of you have lost your retirement savings because of us.  But, what the heck. We know how to really use a current cliche [from a movie with a couple of old actors in it]. So!  Better use our credit card, soon. While you can still toddle on to a tour bus. Won't that be just so much fun!"