Creepy and annoying marketing

I must admit I am not a fan of “cold-call” or “cold-mailing” marketing. All these things do is annoy me and make me sure I would never do business with that company.

A recent experience went way over the line though. So I get an envelope in the mail, addressed to me. It had no return address (clue 1 it’s mass marketing). My name and address was in script, made to look like a personally addressed letter, except it was printed (clue 2). And the final clue was that the postage said, “bulk mail”.”

I was still curious, so I opened the letter. The first thing I saw was a Google Map picture of my house. Now I know that Google Maps shows house pictures, but I don’t really need to see my house. The solicitation went on to say, “We can lower your home insurance.” Another bad thing was they had information about our house completely wrong, saying it was built in 1949. Um, no, it was built in the early 1990’s.

As if I would ever do business with such a company. This solicitation came from Jennifer Nappi, an agent with AllState Insurance in Wakefield, Rhode Island. Boy, she must be desperate for business if she resorts to this deceptive marketing.

What creepy and annoying marketing things have you seen?

Annoyed person photo is courtesy of Pavel Danilyuk.