A sign of the times

[ivyfic]

I saw an ad on TV the other day for a contest where the prize was they'd pay your mortgage for a year. Now there's a sexy prize.

Yesterday I got (another) email from alumni giving that said this:
"Help our class go green and orange this year. As we gear up for the 2008-09 Annual Giving campaign, please make your gift now, online, before we mail our first appeal."

So basically what they're saying is give us money or we'll kill trees mailing stuff to you and it will be your fault we're destroying the environment. ... That's blackmail! If they wanted to save trees they could just let me opt out of all the alumni giving mailings, but that's never going to happen.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

They really need to have that option without requiring a donation first. Was it chuckro who was talking about that--about how if you gave them money at some certain time, they wouldn't bug you again for a while?

Either way, if they have your e-mails, they can do the begging just as well, so I don't see what mailings accomplish other than pissing people off.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Jethrien is the one who is willing to pay them to not send her anything. I think that only rewards bad behavior.

If they went a year without sending anything, and then a single letter in May, I might be more tempted to give. Ten months of non-stop emails and mailings just piss me off.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

I feel that now that there's an economic crunch, the pleas for donations and the spam mails offering ONE HUNNER MILLION DOLLARS from Nigeria are on the rise. And I know I, for one, am on a moratorium on donations. I suspect most people are.

I predict high levels of irritation this winter.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

USAA is running a promo that if you get a car loan from them, they'll buy you 1000 gallons of gas.

That...is a lot of gas. And a lot of money. Sheesh!

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

"In lieu of giving to Princeton, I've decided to pay to plant a number of trees in Princeton's name. This should make up for your enviro-blackmail."

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

"All you're getting me to do is leave my mailing address off the alumni database."