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Richard H. Levey's February Loose Cannon column brings to mind an ongoing issue I have with the direct mail I've received. While Mr. Levey points out how “a single word can undo an effective direct mail piece,” let me point out how a programming error can also undo an effective direct mail piece.

Being employed in the direct marketing industry, I knew I'd end up on many mailing lists as a result of my initial donations to a few causes close to my heart. What I didn't anticipate was having my surname interpreted as a title by various mailers.

When the first piece of misaddressed mail arrived, I was amused that I was promoted from an untitled addressee to that of an engineer. However, it's a waste of money, energy and product to receive all the unusable address labels and note pads with my name as “Ms. Suzanne, Eng.” And to be addressed in the body of the piece as “Dear Ms. Suzanne” made me feel like I was living in another era.

The first thing I look at when I receive my five to eight pieces of solicitations daily is how my name is spelled. If it's incorrect, but yet attracted my attention, I'll open it just to look for ideas since I'm in the business. But I definitely will not respond with a donation to proliferate the problem. The only organizations that will receive my donations will be those that have my information correct. Organizations need only look in any large city's phone book and see how many “Engs” are listed in order to estimate the cost of this error in programming.

Mr. Levey's problem relates to the words in a direct mail piece; mine occurs despite an effective creative piece. And the problem isn't limited to small nonprofits. Pieces with this mistake have been mailed from March of Dimes, Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Defenders of Wildlife, just to name a few of the big ones.

Suzanne Eng
Purchasing Manager
Smithsonian Publishing
New York

With great interest I read two readers' criticisms of Tom Collins' Makeover Maven column (Letters to the Editor, February). I respect the suggestion to “curb Tom's 1930s approach to advertising,” but I disagree with their thesis that pretty pictures move people better than solid salesmanship.

Salesmanship is a lost art in advertising, but Tom is breathing new sales life back into our business. I'd venture a guess that the gentlemen who took Tom to task in these letters were taught that advertising was drawing pretty pictures to capture attention and quick-start the desire to buy. I'll bet they never sold anything in their lives.

This “picture principle” of communicating information harks back to the days when smoke signals and jungle drums delivered messages. Credit Confucius, too, when he (supposedly) said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Not true, Confucius: Smoke signals and jungle drums reigned long before words were written or spoken.

Words weave magic in a reader's mind. Words are the high voltage of advertising. Pretty pictures will never replace the power of words, but when used in tandem they have reinforced sales power.

Too much advertising today is saying nothing to everybody instead of saying something to somebody.

Howard Gossage, a wise and brilliant sage of adverting in the 1950s, said: “People don't read advertising, they read what interests them, and sometimes that might just be advertising.” In 1927 Claude Hopkins wrote, “Advertising is salesmanship. Its only purpose is to make sales.”

Tom, keep up the good words. Together we just might encourage universities to put salesmanship and persuasive writing back in the curriculum for aspiring advertising professionals.

Bob Hemmings
Hemmings IV Direct
Pasadena, CA

EDITOR'S NOTE

The photograph on page 19 of the April issue was not captioned. The person pictured is FedEx Kinko's marketing specialist adviser Kristy Treleani.