I hate and admire this scammy direct mail envelope

Not fundraising, but classic direct response mail.

There’s a lot going on here, most of it meaning little or nothing.

It looks “important,” and it stands out with all its empty bluster.

I bet it does well, despite the ridiculous, scammy thing it’s selling: an employment regulations poster, the kind required to be posted at workplaces, for $120. The poster that’s available for free from the government.

Every direct mail envelope has just one job: to get opened.

Not to be clever.

Not to be beautiful.

Not to make it completely clear what’s inside.

Just to get opened.

And weirdness like this often works.

I once created an envelope that had nothing on it but a big messy-looking rubber-stamp style teaser: LETTER ENCLOSED. We had to fight to keep it against the logicians who said it made no sense. They were right.

But it was a top performer.

Find your own weirdness when you create direct mail envelopes.