Returning an Unrequested Verizon Phone Book
Sep.14, 2008 in
Advertising
Why are email spammers thrown in jail while phone book spammers are allowed to continue to carpet bomb neighborhoods of Minneapolis with unsolicited advertising? It makes no sense.
Sadly, I thought I had solved this problem only to find yet another phone book on my front steps today . . . soaking in the rain. Here’s what I did with it:
I hope they don’t remind having my phone book left on their property unsolicited.
PS: It turns out that throwing a phone book is more difficult that I expected.
September 14th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
You have no idea how much I have wanted to do this. Phone book return flash mob, anyone?
September 14th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I have a TWO fucking Verizon phone books in my recycle bin right now: one delivered to me, and one delivered to the foreclosed house across the street. I could not find anywhere in the book as to how to contact them properly to get removed from them treating my front steps like a landfill.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Well done! I think you have just created the offical drop-off site for these useless books — that putt-putt space. I’ll drop mine there this week.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Your google ads at the end of the vid are hilarious.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:40 am
That’s awesome! I just found one on my steps. I got pissed off and said to my girlfriend, “I shouldn’t have this. I took the Deet’s advice and opted out of receiving phone books.” So seeing that you had the same thing happen oddly brings a smile to my face. Nice work!
September 15th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Ya’ll have NO idea how many of these phone books just end up at recycling facilities, or worse, the incinerator. Thank you, Ed, for bringing some creative light to this issue.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:01 am
[...] » Returning an Unrequested Verizon Phone BookThe Deets – Ed Kohler's Blog God you just have to love The Deets (tags: thedeets phonebooks mnblogs) [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 9:49 am
[...] Here’s what I’ll be doing with them next time. Why are email spammers thrown in jail while phone book spammers are allowed to continue to carpet bomb neighborhoods of Minneapolis with unsolicited advertising? It makes no sense. [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Woo-hoo! To quote John Hoff (aka “Johnny Northside”), a strong admirer of yours:
“We will not stop until we have total and crushing victory over phone book evil.”
Woo-hoo, I say!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Ed–as always, you’re my hero. A couple days ago, I also noticed the Verizon phone book offensive had swamped my neighborhood in North Minneapolis. Could you post the particulars about the address in EAGAN so everybody…and I mean EVERYBODY…knows where to go?
I was hoping for action from city officials weeks ago. I haven’t heard anything about this issue coming out of City Hall, yet.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Thanks John. Verizon spun off a company called Idearc Media in 2006 and that company runs the phone book business. Their local office is at:
Idearc
880 Blue Gentian Road, Suite 260
Eagan, MN 55121
The address link should show you the putting green.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I don’t even understand why the phone book system is still in place. Figuring the cost in compiling, printing, and delivering all those massive books, of which a sliver are actually opened, one wonders how cost effective it is.
Clearly, advertisers are continuing to pay for space in the book, but are they getting their money’s worth anymore?
September 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Dang, had I known you were on the way there, I’d have given you mine. It came on a flipping Sunday morning and made it as far as the recycle bin (once I carefully separated it from its plastic bag–more pollution).
How many yellowpages are there? One for each telecom?
September 16th, 2008 at 12:13 am
wow.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Ed, I love your shirt in this video. Do you perhaps know where I can obtain one?
Oh, and my grandma called. She thinks she can out-throw you.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:47 am
[...] would love to do what Ed Kohler of The Deets did, but I would be mightily tempted to chuck the phone book through Verizon’s window instead of [...]
September 16th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I think discus technique would serve well in future phone book hefting attempts. Once more around to get a little momentum then “ooomph!” all over their putting green.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
[...] wileyone on Returning an Unrequested Verizon Phone Book [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 12:03 am
[...] me onto their radio show to discuss the Yellow Pages Industry’s phone book spam policy that led to my trip to Idearc’s Eagan Campus to return an unsolicited phone book to their plastic putting [...]
October 6th, 2008 at 5:35 am
[...] and neighborhood activist Ed Kohler passed along this gem to [...]
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:19 pm
[...] Let’s work together to keep America beautiful. Of course, I don’t have a problem with throwing unwanted phone books at the companies who delivered the print spam in the first place. That’s totally justified. [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 11:28 am
GET A LIFE!!!!!!!!!!
November 20th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
jackn7, I’ll give your anonymous feedback the respect it deserves. Have a good day.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
[...] are changing. Ed “Deets” will be glad to hear that many of the Yellow Pages publishers are “teetering on the [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 11:08 am
So once again you have proven how little of a life you have. And yes I do work in the business of delivering phone books. I dont deliver I am one of the field managers who runs the delivery. I can not tell you how many morons like you call and complain about the delivery non stop. Forceing us to fire people for no reason other then bringing you the new phone book. So I hope you are happy about putting people out of work in these difficult economic times.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how small of a life some people have to make all of this fuss over receiving phone books they don’t want! Unbelievable and sad. If you have THIS much spare time, try volunteering at some local soup kitchen, or church, something else that really could make a positive difference in the lives of others.
I was googling to find out when mine was going to be delivered because, as a small business, I wanted to see my new ad for this year. And I ended up finding this. ALL of my customers find me either in the Verizon yellow pages or by word-of-mouth. Even though I work on the computer for a living, the yellow pages is the only thing I use to find local businesses and physicians.
Man, I’m still shaking my head in disbelief.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
PamJ, thanks for expressing your concern about my interest in not receiving print spam in the form of Verizon Yellow Pages.
If I could ask one thing of you, it’s this: Take a few deep breaths while considering the irony of your behavior. To look up business information about the the Verizon Yellow Pages, you didn’t turn to the Verizon Yellow Pages. You turned to Google.
When you say, “ALL of my customers find me either in the Verizon yellow pages or by word-of-mouth.” I believe you. If that’s where you do all of your advertising, that’s where all of your business would come from, for better or worse.
Here are a few quick questions for you:
How much business do you receive from people who throw away their phone books?
Do you think that you, as a business owner, should be paying for the production and distribution of those books?
Wouldn’t you be able to put more money toward running your business if you weren’t paying for those books?
Do you enjoy having a portion of your taxes go toward the disposal of phone books that were never used?
PS: Your comment sounds like astroturfing to me. I’ve never met anyone who’s as excited about phone books as you are without being on the payroll.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
[...] fun humbleness. I set it up, entered some content, photos and a couple videos including Ed Kohler returning an unrequested Verizon phone book. 19 whopping people became members of the public profile. I then put out a poll for favorite local [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hey Mr. Friend of the environment,
How much gas did you waste driving to and from the Verizon office. I also think your strategy of throwing your trash around someone else’s neighborhood is very sound. More people should do that.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
You know, maybe we should take Jim’s lashing to heart and do a greener way of taking out the yellow book trash…I have an idea (and maybe the Deets can sponsor a contest for better ideas).
Here’s my idea–
1) We encourage the boy/girl scouts to do fundraiser-type collections of all unwanted YPs around the nation, having collection points at all the baseball fields around the country, and the team’s playing on those fields can have special ticket give-aways to the scout troop that collects the most YP garbage…film at 10…around the nation.
I’m in, I’ll volunteer to market the idea for free…around the nation.
How about you Jim Cook, you got a better, greener way to raise awareness to this wasteful YP approach?
June 19th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
i have a question …i plan to open a business in a state that has both verizon and yellow book phone books now which one is used more? anybody?
August 10th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
[...] phone books, this would prevent 14,000 metric tons of “carbon dioxide equivalent.” A Twin Cities blogger is so tired of receiving phone books he doesn’t need that he posted a video of his comical [...]
August 17th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
[...] Returning a Verizon Phone Book [...]
October 16th, 2009 at 11:02 am
[...] a funny video showing one creative way to return your unrequested phone [...]
February 24th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
You need to get a life it is only a phonebook. I am sure that you have money and do not need to work otherwise you would have better things to do than drive a phonebook who knows how many miles and gas wasted to act like a dumb-ass and throw a phone books in the lawn of a business. But obviously you did something that brightened up your miserable day.
Opt- out is awaste of time if you do not want the phonebook get rid of it.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
@Robert, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to tell me that I need to get a life.
Perhaps you could help me understand who benefits from NOT having opt-out policies? Millions of people across the country have to deal with books they no longer use. In Minneapolis, we receive directories from three companies per year. In aggregate, that is a LOT of time wasted. Are cities benefitting when they have to spend tax dollars to recycle unrequested directories? Do local businesses benefit from covering the cost of books people don’t plan to use?
If you’re against consumers. Against tax payers. And against small businesses, who are you for?
And why are you so out of touch with the YP industry’s own standards. Don’t YP companies offer opt-out systems today? Sure, they do a horrible job abiding by their own do not deliver lists, but they don’t seem to have a problem with opt-out these days.
March 6th, 2010 at 4:21 am
Ed you are fucking retarded, this is how i make extra money by putting the book on your steps
next time i hope they place it right under your door and you break your ass when you come out of your house and fall on it LOL
loser
March 6th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Brett, I’ve delivered phone books too, and don’t blame you for the incompetencies of the companies that hire you. As I see it, you’re getting paid to distribute trash – to litter – when you deliver books to homes that are no longer interested in receiving print directories. Wouldn’t you rather be paid to provide a valuable service to those who continue to WANT phone books rather than for creating litter?
And think about this, Brett. How do the businesses that pay to advertise in the books you distribute benefit from being placed at houses where they won’t be opened? They don’t. So you’re wasting their money by doing so. And, since you pay taxes in your community, you end up paying for the solid waste costs of disposing of books that are never used.
I don’t blame you for this, Brett. I hope we can both agree that we’d be better off if phone companies targeted their deliveries to those who still find the books valuable.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Brett – Ed’s ass is already broken, it has a crack down the middle.
December 24th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I’m amused by the comments from folks who still want to see phone books delivered for no reason other than “it keeps people employed.” Really?!? So if I pay people to take a crap on your lawn, should we tolerate that simply because it’s a source of jobs?
Same difference. The phone book is just a little bigger.
December 18th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
[...] would love to do what Ed Kohler of The Deets did, but I would be mightily tempted to chuck the phone book through Verizon’s window instead of [...]