There's nothing really noteworthy in this mailing from Uncle Maynard's local Red Cross chapter, except one thing...
See those little semi-circles marching down the right and left margins?
If you're above a certain age, you'll recognize them in an instant: They're pin-feed perforations. Or rather, they're printed facsimiles or pin-feed perfs.
Now why would anyone bother to add fake holes to their mailing?
I can only guess, but here's a plausible explanation: The mailing is a long-time control that originated back in those dim, prehistoric times when pin-fed forms were the cheap way to produce this type of mailing. When you could afford it, you trimmed off the margins and nobody saw your perfs. But if you were really going for cheap, you left them there. And hoped the cheapness of it did no harm.
Eventually (in my hypothetical scenario) the people who produced this package come out with some great news: We no longer produce these packages with a pin-fed process. You can get the nice, clean, hole-free paper without the added cost of trimming!
Then the weirdest thing happened: The no-holes version didn't work as well. And if that weren't bad enough, it would now cost more to have the holes. They had to be artificially added to the process.
If they were smart, some testing was done at this point, so they could measure the cost and efficacy of the holes. Someone came up with the entirely strange idea of printed fake holes.
And the fake holes did the trick.
Direct response is that way sometimes. Clunky and ugly so often works better than modern and nice. Even artificial clunky and ugly. No, it doesn't make sense. And that's why logic is a weak guide for fundraising.
(If anyone reading this has the inside scoop on this package, I'd love to hear from you!)
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