This is simply brilliant. I have three envelopes right in front of me. This kind of creative non-violence is just the kind of thing that generates lots of negative branding, and makes companies crazy. Will it change much? No, not from this alone. But the more of these stunts that we pull, the more expensive it gets, and the more their board rooms waste expensive time discussing these negative branding guerilla tactics.
Send ’em all your love. Do it now.
Please retweet the crap out of this. Use the button below. Thanks.
That sounds like a fun way to strike back, but unless things have changed in the last 20 years, most of the processing of that mail is outsourced, as is the data processing of the credit card applications. Actual bank employees may never see any of those fun messages. Postage charges will still add up, though :-)
For those of you who think this will only make the banks pass the costs back on to us and those of you who think it wasn’t just the banks fault for the mortgage crisis:
If we do ‘nothing’… ‘nothing’ will change. If everyone does a ‘little’ and we have more ‘little’ ideas like this, we can make a BIG difference as a people. We cannot let this movement die. We must continue on because ANYONE can make big money if you have big money. So… here are some basic solutions to our countries problems:
1. Tax the 1% 90% like we used to.
2. Tax the hell out of any business, manufacturer or company that takes their physical location out of the U.S. so that it will not be profitable for them to take it somewhere else.
3. Make it illegal for a U.S. citizen to take their manufacturing to another country.
4. Make education free in the U.S. the same as it is in China and Canada.
5. America needs to find ways to become totally self sufficient in the event the world rises up against us and stops selling us oil.
Cudos to this young man who came up with this idea of sending the 1% their junk mail back with a message. And cudos to all the other people who are finding ways to fight back. We must keep this going. If it dies now… we may never get another opportuinity as the 1% will ready themselves against us with new laws to prevent this and new ways to thwart our efforts. They are working even now to stop this and prevent it from happening in the future.
Hilarious…I hope this catches on!
Except it used to be that over a certain amount of wt., Post Office won’t deliver because when they buy postage, they have to agree to weight per piece. Yes – used to be that stuff over weight would not get to business. Yes, I learned that when I tried this actually m years ago so… ?!
Hey, it’s kind of like DoS attack for the mail! I’d like to suggest phone calls as well.
Keep it going. We wan it to make news.
I love it. What a Great Idea…. It will also help the post office.
I do think this is a creative idea, but all the banks will do is pass along their increased costs to the consumer. And big banks were one reason for the downfall, but not the only reason. Uneducated people purchasing homes they had no business of buying contributed. And that’s not entirely the banks’ fault. I don’t agree with what the banks did, at all, but I do think taking all responsibility off of consumers is wrong. And maybe even more detrimental to the issue because it does nothing to educate them. It just encourages more bad choices.
That’s why everyone is moving their business to credit unions! :D
That is still a good idea regardless.
If you think banks fees to customers will not increase because the public did not cause them to have an expense, you are very sorely mistaken and naive. No offense… Banks are like sharks only with an insatiable appetite for taking more of their customers money. They have to show more profit every quarter to justify their salaries and their jobs. They only have so many ways to make money aside from buying more banks and taking in their customers. Raising fees by hook or crook is their trade. They can’t innovate new products since the mortgage smorgasbord they developed and blew up. So Not doing This event will only benefit the banks by shielding them from complaints and consumer frustration.
Damn all those uneducated people! And the worst part is they move into your neighborhood with their uneducated ways trying to push their uneducated “we deserve a nice place to live” agendas.
“I don’t agree with what the banks did, at all” + “not entirely the banks’ fault” + “Uneducated people purchasing homes they had no business of buying” = “pretty much not the bank’s fault that people are stupid, what do you expect the banks to do? I guess I do agree with the banks after all!”
I’d like to know why dumb people came out to buy just during this “housing crisis”. Haven’t these idiots been around buying houses forever?
Wow. Just wow.
I speak of “uneducated” as those that didn’t do their own homework on buying a home. Budgeting, going to a credit counselor or a NP organization that helps people determine what they should really spend. And if you really need to know, I live in an extremely diverse neighborhood with homes that are $600k and those that are turned into 4 apartments and rent for $400 each. So come at me like that.
Don’t you believe that people should be held responsible for their actions? Don’t you think that at some point if someone tells you that you can afford $700 monthly mortgage but you only have $1000 income that this MIGHT, just MIGHT, be something you should NOT do? You have a choice. Banks don’t force mortgages on people. Yes, they approved people for WAY more than most should ever spend, but guess what? They didn’t sign that mortgage for you.
“Haven’t these idiots been around buying houses forever?” EXACTLY. So why all of a sudden is it the banks’ faults and not those idiots?
Just because we disagree doesn’t mean you should be a jerk in your response. It doesn’t make me respect you or your side.
I think it’s pretty clear by now you’re a lost cause, hence the profanity. Now fuck right off.
have you ever seen the lies real estate and mortgage agents tell their customers? Not all of them… just enough
Yes, I have. And I’m not saying this doesn’t happen. What I’m saying is that people aren’t using their own minds – people who don’t do serious inquiries and budgeting to see how much they should spend on a home. A bank tells you that they approve you for a mortgage of $100k but if you do your own homework you know that you can only afford an $70k mortgage. IT’S A CHOICE. And there are TONS of organizations out there to help people make these choices too, so you can’t call “I didn’t know what I was doing” and not be held responsible. BOTH sides should be held responsible. Not just the banks…
The idea that people buying houses they couldn’t afford is one of the major causes of the mess is profoundly stupid. Banks are supposedly serious business minded institutions who, if they were competent, wouldn’t throw their money around so recklessly.
Of course that in itself is a small part of it. The banks, again through recklessness and greed, built a nice monstrous house of cards of leveraging and derivatives on top of these really crappy decisions on their part to give money to people unlikely to ever pay them back, ensuring when things blew up, they’d blow up several orders of magnitude more than otherwise.
So yes, Mom, people should be responsible with their money. But somehow fingering the little guy with this Fox News bullshit is just moronic.
Makes me wish I hadn’t gone to all that trouble to stop my junk mail.
This is great, I’ll reblog, tweet, etc. However, I wonder if the simplest option isn’t the best. Once they start getting wood shims and stuff, they’ll know to just throw them away. They might even be able to have the USPS do it, to avoid the extra mail load. In which case, dialog is circumvented. But if the envelopes have a just a single sheet of paper (exactly what they expect), then they have to have personnel involved, opening them. Money, time, dialog. :)
I love it. Will definitely pass it on to everyone.
Love this idea! Tweeted out & gonna share on FB. More importantly, I can contribute to #OWS in a way I couldn’t before.
In the 80s, we would do something similar with Pat Robertson’s 1-800 number. Call them and run it up.
Thanks for sharing – I’m going out and getting some shims this weekend!
Shoq, how can I get an email link to send to non-twitters. It was brilliant and I’m on board. Going to get shingles now. Please send email link.#nycbmx
this is the link: http://shoqvalue.com/keep-wall-street-occupied-send-them-your-love-letters
hmm…that may be one way to get rid of the hundreds of excess drawings my 2, 6 and 7 year old do every day….
I usually send them a $150 bill for ad evaluation.And then start dunning them for non-payment.It drives them absolutely nuts.
What a great idea! Just got one of those annoying credit card mailings today, went to recycling bag, now will take your advice and mail it back!!!