• by January 22, 2001

Sorry to start the week on a dissonant note, but I have a bone to pick with the advertising industry. Not as a whole, but certainly the segment responsible for the following.

This morning, I received a piece of snail mail. Considering that MediaPost, parent of the Minute, is a publisher of several DAILY ONLINE newsletters (don't worry, this is not a pitch) and almost every bit of info comes via email, a business-size envelope is a rare sighting around here.

Especially one containing any sort of news announcement. Of course I always open these press release envelopes, more for old times' sake than just in case, but only before each and every one of them gets unceremoniously tossed into the trash - if we got it via snail mail, it's old news.

But back to my story. To my surprise, the envelope I opened this morning contained an undated "For Immediate Release" announcement of someone's promotion to - get this - VP of INTERACTIVE Strategy at a Springfield, Mo-based ad agency. Among the job responsibilities - leading the agency division responsible for the "INTERACTIVE strategic planning, INTERACTIVE project management and other CUTTING-EDGE services." Moreover, something even more ancient fell out of the envelope - a 35mm slide with a picture of the gentleman.

All this in the age of email and digital cameras! And, the mailing came from the INTERACTIVE agency itself, so I can't even fault some old-timer PR firm.

This probably seems like an insignificant occurrence to you, but my question is this: How can we, as an industry, ever hope to realize our dreams of electronic invoicing, electronic data interchanges, online ad exchanges and the like if we still don't use email to its full potential?