Spam and Junk Mail

Jim - What is it you actually do for a living?
Janice - I work in direct marketing
Jim - What does that mean?
Janice - Well, it means that I market directly to customers
Jim - Yeah, but what do you actually do?
Janice - Well, we send them information about our products and services
Jim - Do people actually phone up and ask for that kind of thing?
Janice - No, we have a database of customers who have bought something from us or we buy databases from other companies
Jim - So they don't ask to be sent what your sending?
Janice - well, not exactly, but we know they're interested in our product
Jim - How do you know that?
Janice - Because they fit a certain demographic profile...
Jim - A what?
Janice - A demographic profile, like "corporate chieftain" or "city adventurer"
Jim - And what do they mean?
Janice - I don't know, but they like our product
Jim - How do you know that?
Janice - We did some focus groups last year and the researchers told us...
Jim - What, you asked 10 random people what they liked and now you know what everyone in the country likes?
Janice - Not exactly, well... yeah, kind of
Jim - So, you send people Spam and Junk Mail they didn't ask for because some company sold you the addresses of some people that some researcher told you would like your product?
Janice - Pretty much, yeah
Jim - That sounds like a shit job