The Big Fat Marketing Blog

There’s nothing worse than getting a “robo call” from an automated machine. Except when it’s a wrong-number robo call.

I actually got two of them at the office Friday night—both meant for my colleagues on the sales side—from some vendor exhibiting at the DMA show in San Diego this week. more

Although catalogers have been dealt various blows the past couple of years, including the now legendary 2007 postal rate increase, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal talks about the importance of print catalogs to consumers. more

OK, so it wasn’t much of a surprise last week when a federal judge dismissed porn trade group the Free Speech Coalition’s lawsuit against Utah’s comically misnamed child-protection do-not-e-mail registry.

What was disconcerting, though, was a vow Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff made in the press release touting his victory.

Read the rest here.

This morning, after I posted a reply to Bill Bass (a DMA board member), I asked myself: why in the hell am I doing this? We are unbelievably busy and I don’t have time for drama. As much as I like hearing from all my old friends, clients, vendors and far-too-many people named Anonymous, I have to ask myself…

Is the DMA as relevant as the fax machine, the 8-track or the CB radio? Is any of this really worth it?

Why I am supporting this organization when there are so many others that I really like? (Here’s looking at you ACMA.)

Why am I even bothering to defend an organization that puts out a Voice of a Customer (VOC) survey and then apparently suppresses it? How much did the DMA pay for it, and why — and at whatever the cost was — did management not either take advantage of it, or allow members — whose dues paid for this research — know about it and benefit from it? more

Have you seen any of the following people?

Leslie Abi-Karam, Pitney Bowes Inc.

Christine Aguilera, SkyMall, Inc.

Bill Bass, Fair Indigo

Ronald Bliwas, A. Eicoff & Company

G. Steven Dapper, hawkeye

Glenn Eisen, Guthy-Renker LLC

Rick Erwin, Experian

Nancy Evenson, NetNowVideo

Brian Fetherstonhaugh, OgilvyOne Worldwide

Steve Fuller, L.L. Bean Inc.

Andrew Goldberg, Publishers Clearing House

Susan Goodman, Goodman&Company

Karen Haefling, KeyBank more

When it comes to pop culture, I’ve never been one of the cool kids.

While all the other girls were pouring over magazines like US, People, InTouch, OK and LifeStyle to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip, I was reading the Economist and National Review.

As I said. Not cool.

From what I’ve ascertained (mostly from standing in lines at the supermarket), it appears that there are two ways to break down celebrity couples. If it’s love, you combine their names. Tom-Kat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) and Spiedi (Spencer Pratt and Heidi-What’s-Her-Name.) If it’s war, you assign teams. Team Paris versus Team Nicole. Team Britney versus Team K-Fed.

In the world of what’s hot and who’s not, love is all rainbows, unicorns and adopted babies. War, on the other hand, is serious business. There are two distinct teams and you need to choose sides. You’re either Team Jen or Team Angelina. You must pick one. Abstaining is not an option.

So I ask you, WHERE THE HELL IS TEAM GRECO? more