New US Postal Service Ad Campaign: Email Sucks, So Mail Stuff Instead
from the from-luddites-r-us dept
It seems the US Postal Service (USPS) is starting to get pretty desperate. Losing a ton of money, it's apparently decided that the time is now to attack the competition. The competition, of course, is email. It's put out two TV commercials that focus on bashing email for not being either secure or reliable:Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: email, snail mail, usps
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You mean kind of like dozens of postal employees handle my mail and have the opportunity to open it? Or the way if my mailbox is full or the postal worker is confused, my mail will sometimes be left in front of my door where anyone steal it?
"Not to mention the email admins at your school or business who have access to all of your email."
Yeap. That's somewhat reminiscent of the way anyone at your company's mail-room could open your physical mail if you have it delivered there.
"A letter in an USPS building or truck, or your postmaster-general-approved mailbox, is protected by federal law."
That sort of reminds me of the way the 4th Amendment makes it illegal to read someone else's email.
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Sending that 4 Terabyte drive to others.
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That being said. Yes let's all start using USPS again and wait 2-8 weeks for that damn letter. You know... old people always so that younger ones need to slow down. I guess only the USPS are paying attention.
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The USPS hasn't worked at the glacial pace I remember in my youth in many, many years.
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Yeah, I wonder if it's not a postal guy walking from LA with my envelope. Would be faster...
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I wonder what the difference is?
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Free SSD! It just takes a month!
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If you think about it, a mail truck with a load of Netflix DVD's has awesome bandwidth. Who needs fiber to the curb when we already have the USPS delivering to the curb? USPS FTW!
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Maybe we should change that to USPS truck full of DVDs......
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Why do we hold on to the past?
When did progress become a dirty word?
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Re: Why do we hold on to the past?
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Since 1985...
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Re: Since 1985...
we may yet stand a chance!
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Safe?
And has everyone really gotten a nice big lock on their mailboxes nowadays?
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The US Mail is not secure, or honest
http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/aug/19/mail-carrier-investigated-stealing-mail-ar-199726/
"Of the 623,000 postal employees and contractors across the country, last year only 446 were arrested for theft."
"In 2009-- the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General completed 5,501 investigations for suspected illegal activity, including mail theft.
There were 865 convictions and more than 24 million dollars eventually paid in fines, restitutions and recoveries to the Postal Service."
My email hasn't ripped me off yet, although the spam tries to-but at least I can delete that.
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Re: The US Mail is not secure, or honest
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I spent a lot of time "feeling" said music while attempting to retrieve it from various cassette decks and return it to its rightful place upon the spools inside the cassette itself.
Good times...
[Also, VHS.]
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Use Wax Cylinders. Gramaphones. Or if you're really techy 8-track.
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But seriously. I wonder how much energy it takes to deliver a snail-mail vs an email? Nevermind what becomes of the dead-tree medium it's written on.
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So long, suckers! *disconnects internet*
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Back in 1981...
"The USPS would set up a network where a message would originate electronically. It would then be sent to one of a handful of participating postal offices that had terminals, where it would be printed out. The hard copy of the message would then be delivered to its destination - essentially in the same manner and with the same speed as first class mail."
So... like a telegraph, I suppose. Only at a loss of $5 per piece of 'electro-mail':
"A message was priced at 26˘ - and for each email message, the USPS was said to lose around $5."
More info at this link: http://cybertelecom.blogspot.com/2011/09/us-postal-service-versus-email-historic.html
Like how the USPS had to override the FCC to get this money-losing system rolling and other such hilarity.
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Talking Points
Unless, of course, they planned ahead and ordered them one day earlier.
When I pointed this out on the news site carrying the original article, a very well prepared troll accused me of trying to cut his great aunt who didn't like email off from the world.
So it looks like there's a whole campaign going on to keep a bureaucracy in power, complete with astroturf protest rallies and web presence.
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An online virus has never attacked a corkboard?
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It just misses that special touch.
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expectation of privacy
With this kind of advertisement, the feds are acknowledging that people are using email in the place of snail mail. I would think that equating the purpose of the two would also signify an acknowledgement that citizens expectations of privacy should be equivalent as well.
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Re: expectation of privacy
The Gov has physical control of all mail moving thru their USPS facilities--at any time for no expressed reason mail can be scanned, opened, disappeared, etc and this is normal because everybody expects some mail to just never arrive.
Perhaps if all email went thru their facilities their wouldn't be complaints...
Also, Senators/Congressman get "free postage" privileges, perhaps they should get "free bandwidth" equivalent privileges thru the new gov email routine (& inspection) facility...
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Re: Re: expectation of privacy
Task the USPS with getting the dark fiber online, connecting strong routers, and collecting money from peering agreements with ISPs and bandwidth providers.
They can call it the "USPS Internet Backbone Service" or something like that.
There we go, funding problems solved--and they'll still be doing the same job--packet delivery.
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know what business you're in
The Post Office would have been smarter to play up a quality of paper mail which can't easily be surpassed by e-mail: charm. There is something about holding a letter in your hand, a piece of paper prepared by the hands of someone you know, with the handwriting you recognize, the tidiness or wildness, the post-scriptum crammed in at the bottom, the creases and finger-smudges, maybe the yellowing at the edges. I have a letter my grandfather wrote to my grandmother when he was stationed in London during WWII; he wrote it on the day they announced victory in Europe, and he describes the street scenes and celebrations in a youthful longhand, similar to but different from the inscriptions in some of his books from when he was an old man. In another month I'll write a letter to a couple of my little nieces inviting them (and their parents, natch) to a Christmas party. I'll use my favorite pen and let myself go a little with the capital letters, and maybe add a sketch or two. That's what paper is still best at.
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Re: know what business you're in
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Did they mention viruses???
Because its really hard to send anthrax through the internet.
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"New US Postal Service Ad Campaign: Email Sucks, So Mail Stuff Instead"
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Thank you, USPS. I've seen the error of my ways.
Number of friends: 122
Cost of stationary: $4
The ability to file bankruptcy to keep them in contact several times per day, every day of the year: Priceless
What a failure. Next, they'll go after Twitter in lieu of a postcard.
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Individuals versus companies
I think you missed the point a bit. These ads aren't aimed at Joe Blow sending a love note to his girlfriend, or at a girl writing her Aunt in Nowhere, Nebraska. They're aimed at middle managers at firms, both big and small, who don't understand email and technology. They're designed to remind them that paper mail is traditional, and therefore better (yeah, right), while at the same time sowing some FUD about email. One person sending an email versus a paper letter to a friend or family member won't make or break the Post Office. One company switching all its billing to email instead of paper mail will make a measurable dent in their revenue, though.
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Re: Individuals versus companies
"Print out my emails and read them back to me. I can't risk having my account compromised. Also, wear some gloves when you read those emails. And get me some sort of personal ventilation system. God knows where those 'electronic mails' have been."
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e-mail sucks so mail stuff instead
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Re: e-mail sucks so mail stuff instead
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USPS Holds Our Mail During Vacation, Keeps Holding It
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Typical USPS timeliness
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2004/11/email_is_old_fa.html
But to give them full credit, I'll bet they are already starting to develop their anti-SMS campaign ads for rollout in 5-10 years. "Do you really trust your important messages to just go flying willy nilly through the air without even being in a sack???"
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All those years ago
Now... it's to little to late.... goodbye USPS
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Not really
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNyhX6vmYcA
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A bit of perspective, though...
That could still happen, and I wouldn't want to bet against it, but that is one bright spot about this campaign. No matter how much it sucks otherwise.
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Interestingly, USPS operates at a profit. So they aren't losing money on operations. Where they are going into the hole is due to a congressional mandate to pay 75 years worth of retirement in 5 years. Which is completely ridiculous. I'll get you links when I can get to something other than my phone.
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Response to: illmunkeys on Oct 5th, 2011 @ 2:18pm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/29/1021133/-Republicans-Starve-The-Post-Office-Along- With-the-Rest-of-Us?via=search
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Response to: illmunkeys on Oct 5th, 2011 @ 2:18pm
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Response to: illmunkeys on Oct 5th, 2011 @ 2:18pm
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Hypocracy
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I support paper mail.
Go USPS! & the other big 3 shippers for that matter.
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