Well said. As always.

You have a way of cutting right to the heart of an issue.

Think of how the world turns — the mall-intercept interview, the dog that wants to be petted, the sick child, the gardener knocking on the door for his check, the e-mail asking the recipient to complete a questionnaire and so on. Some interruptions are not pleasant, others are.

That’s the way it is with selling products. Some we like and don’t mind interruption and others we don’t.

And as you say, this activity is as old as man himself. It will never go away.

If companies ceased disrupting and interrupting, then they would cease selling. But no one ever should think that these disruptive activities are always distasteful.

It is true that some distasteful interruptions are dying out such as door-to-door selling and unwelcome phone calls. These were indeed out of control. But other means of communication like mail and online (except for email) are easily controlled by the customer.

New distasteful disruptions have come with the growth of new media. Nine out of every ten emails bombard the inboxes with spam and the problem continues to grow in size and complexity. And the Internet has enabled identity theft to grown to epidemic proportions.

So things are changing, but consumers are hardly getting more control over every aspect of their new age lives.

Right on, but the web has given much more control to the consumer. And yes, people like to know they are known, that’s why advertising — especially direct response advertising/marketing will continue to prosper.

Grant A. Johnson