I feel really old when I get irritated about something, which to other people, is something very arbitrary. For the most part, I am very chill about most things and try to have a go with the flow attitude about different types of procedures that happen around me. I once traveled in the back seat of a car for 5 hours and never complained that my pants were caught in the track of the seat and I couldn’t move. I’ve eaten entire meals that tasted like absolute shit so that I wouldn’t hurt someone’s feelings. I typically am not a complainer because I just was raised not to complain at all.
This all being said, if I get one more political flyer in the mail, I will lose it. In the past month, I have received about 5-7 political flyers a day from people running for office in Chicago. Even this past Sunday, someone came by and shoved liked 6 flyers into our mail slot. SUNDAY?! At first, I was like “Oh cool it’s time to vote again soon!”. That alone is very exciting to me since I think the current administration is trash that needs to be shot by cannon into a New Jersey landfill. However, as the days have gone on and I’m getting more and more political mailers and postcards, some of which are just the same every single day, I’m getting very frustrated. It is 2018, why are we sending this much mail still?
I should probably point out now that I’m a green person. I care about the planet. Yes, I recycle. Yes, I feel bad if I throw anything away that has not been entirely used. I live in a situation right now where I maybe have one bag of actual garbage a month. I realize that me living like this, in the grand scheme, is not really doing anything for the planet. And I don’t really believe in God, so I’m not expecting some kind of awesome recycling report card at the end of my life. I live like this because it makes me feel good and I don’t like to be wasteful.
I think a lot of people feel the way I do about these things. In the past 10 years, there have been so many advances with solar energy and the technology around electric cars. We are constantly trying to come up with new ways to not depend solely on oil and improve our access and efficiency of all renewable energy. With the development of the internet and getting email, you are able to now go paperless with most of your bills and have automatic redraws set up to, in turn, pay your bills. Things are just becoming easier without having to waste tangible materials in order to get things done.
This is why I’m so infuriated by political mailers. One or two, ok you are just trying to get your name out there. But to send the exact same flyer to someone’s house every day for a month is a bit much. Much on many levels actually. It costs money to send those out and what is the end game here? All it did for me, was incite rage when I walked through my door. I received the most flyers from Bart. He’s a guy running for something and he loves wearing a blue sweater vest. He also likes to give me more than one of the same flyer of himself per day. It’s like he believes that when people receive these they think “Man, I wish Bart gave me more of these cool flyers so I can gift them to my loved ones!”. No Bart….no one thinks that.
This isn’t even a political thing as far as being left or right. I think all of these politicians have a problem with this. I’m pretty sure based on that blue sweater vest, Bart is a democrat and he still seems to have no problem tsunami-ing me with flyers on the reg.
This morning, after I watched a bunch of random flyers blow down the street on my way to work, I started thinking about this process. Does this strategy for politicians actually work? I came up with a brilliant idea on my drive and immediately told Tom about it when I got to work. Imagine this…
Instead of blasting every person in the city with endless amounts of campaign flyers and postcards that probably 90% of people don’t read – give people ordinary household things with your face and some things you care about on the package. For example, Bart can drop a 2 pack of toilet paper off at my house and on the package he can still have his picture with his sweater vest and some random things he’s going to “fight for” if he gets elected. I see that and I’m like “ok Bart I’m listening…and thank you for this toilet paper that the butts in this apartment will greatly appreciate“. It doesn’t have to be TP either, I’m just thinking of what is most used in my house. I think this would be way more effective…and you need something to read when you’re on the can so why not the package of this toilet paper? Toilet paper literature COULD be the next big thing. Guys….I have ALL the solutions.
Anyway, Tom thinks that this mostly targets the older generation and that they really appreciate direct mail pieces. Still, the quantity is excessive to me. I doubt any politician cares about what I think is just an absolute waste of paper and money. But my hope here is that as time goes on, the younger generation will take over and understand that these constant mailers are just annoying.
Gurl Jonez 
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