Mail That Fails

My mother meant well. When I was a college freshman, she meant to send me a care package. But life was so busy for Mom, working full time wh...

When I started this blog 15 years ago, my intent was to share direct marketing lessons using real-world communications as examples. While I ...

Last Wednesday, I received this email from 7-Eleven touting “Wing Wednesday” with an offer for cheap wings. Is this Mail That Fails? With...

This email from Chart House restaurant merits a Fail for Timing . Offer for May 8 - 14 Sent May 14, 3:05 pm If someone takes their mother ou...

After months of COVID lockdown and isolation, I was finally going to set foot outside of Queens. My wife and I arranged for a weekend getawa...

Remember the good ol' days when penny candy was only $5 a pound? Back then Entertainment Weekly actually published an issue every week....

For more than a decade, I've written about the four pillars of a successful direct marketing campaign: Targeting, Offer, Creative and Ti...

This birthday email from Hooters merits a  Fail for Timing and a Fail for Creative .   The email informs the recipient that he has "1...

In New York City, our primary election for local offices took place on June 22, with early voting taking place June 12 through June 20. Stri...

In a single day last week, I received five emails from FTD Flowers , each with a different subject line: Psst... Someone Special's Birth...

A recent conversation at home went like this: Me: "Hey, honey, did you say you needed new hiking shoes?" Wife: "Eventually. M...

Last year, I wrote about Upstep's 9/11 "Patriot Day" sale on custom orthotic insoles. This year, Upstep had a Labor Day sale....

I recently received this solicitation from PenFed Credit Union, whose formal name (according to Wikipedia) is  Pentagon Federal Credit Union...

This is a difficult time for everyone.  A pandemic is killing tens of thousands of people in the United States , which is why many companies...