There’s a really boring primary coming up in June and by now you’ve likely received a voter guide, and some political junk mail. It’s rather amazing to see so many groups and campaigns (especially for DCCC) that have little money to begin with, who are spending big money on dead tree mail and doorhangers.
It’s especially baffling to see the Sierra Club, which is allegedly in the business of Saving The Earth or something, literally littering neighborhoods with thousands of dead-tree doorhangers. In fact on the day they hit my neighborhood, not only did they do a poor job of distribution (often just dumping them in a pile at the front door or in our case putting them on our gate), but because it was windy, 80% of them blew all over the place. Really effective and “green,” smart guys.
It was followed up by what is likely to be their one postcard sent to voters before the primary – one that cost a lot to mail because postage is now so high for bulk mail, and because they had to use a special blend of smug and soy to print the damned thing. Guess how much I (or any of my neighbors) looked at it? Well you can come by the recycle bin by our mailbox and see how effective all those dead trees were.
It never ceases to amaze me how lower budget campaigns insist on using dead trees as their exclusive campaign communications medium. It’s especially amazing given that San Francisco has the highest concentration of voters online anywhere in the United States, and by using targeted online advertising, they could reach more people for less money, and a big percentage of their budget wouldn’t be at the Post Office. And yes, their consultants could still make the same 15% they would off the junk mail.
San Francisco: Where talk is cheap – and so is “going green!”