One step closer to the death of telemarketing

One step closer to the death of telemarketing

• In: Blog
• By: maxine
• April 30th, 2008

I like this as I do feel it is one step closer to one of the three things that I consider to be the worst three (marketing) scourges on the planet: telemarketing. We all pay (handsomely, thank you Telstra) for the privilege of having a landline. I do not have this landline for the purpose of being contacted, in my private time, by people trying to sell me things I do not want. If the telephone was a free service, which I paid for by accepting advertising, a la network television, it would be a different story. But it is not, and this is why I see telemarketing as an evil invasion of my home.

Enter the crowd sourced death of the telemarketer. Over at ReadWriteWeb I read today about a great idea called Callercomplaints.com, where you can register the number, and as many other details as you can get, of any telemarketer that calls you. The hope is that the entries for organisations that find themselves on this list will find their way towards the top of Google searches for that organisation. Appealingly cunning. The only downside that I can see is that in my experience here in Australia at least, you don’t get to see the number as it is blocked.

I do have faith in the broader idea behind this project though. My only hope is that someone clever will use it to come up with a plan to wipe out the other two worst (marketing) scourges:

• Advertising in the cinema: yes, I paid $16 to see 20 minutes of lame advertising…
• Those guys who drive around on motor scooters with the little trailer or in those special trucks, the sole purpose of which is to trail about advertising for some sickly drink or whatever: seriously, I cannot believe that is not against the law in 2008. We really do care about the environment. A lot.

OK, ranting over for now.

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