CCS could do with polishing up its DM skills

If there’s one thing that really gets on people’s nerves, it’s the way Brassed Off Britain is mentioned every time the subject of direct mail comes up. So readers can rest assured that Brassed Off Britain won’t be mentioned on the Diary’s watch.

In a case straight out of Brassed Off Britain, Philip Crick (of direct agency The Black Hole) was sent a piece of cleverly misdirected direct mail (advertising, er, direct mail), illustrating the perils of poor targeting by printing his name wrongly on the outside.

So far, so ingenious. But in explaining the ruse, Lorraine Turner of CCS Direct Mail proceeded to, er, spell his name wrong.

However, the real slap in the face was to come. For the one piece of the mailer that was correctly targeted was the picture at the bottom. CCS, it seems, had picked up on the fact that Crick is a bit short on hair (mail pattern baldness is a common problem in the direct marketing industry) and cleverly incorporated it into the mailer’s design.

The Diary was going to send this story to the producers of a certain television series, but on second thoughts, judging by the gleam on that forehead, it’s more a case of Brasso Britain.