Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Target Market

When I married a lifetime ago, I didn't take his name. No politics, no fanfare, I didn't like his name, he didn't argue. I stayed me.

Likewise, the children bear my last name. I briefly considered hyphenating them, as was a trend in my area, dismissing that as unnecessarily unwieldy and stupid.

My ex and I haven't lived together in over 8 years. I moved to my current address some three years after we split. Yet, some weeks ago, I started getting mail for him. Well, almost. The mail, mostly from realtors and hearing aid purveyors, is addressed to his first name and my last name.

He's never owned any property, as such, has never had any to sell. While he spent many of our years not hearing me, I doubt even the most sophisticated device would have provided a remedy.

Things change. He may very well need the services of a realtor. He may very well need to procure devices to aid his hearing.

Than again, it's not really he, the marketers are targeting. The person addressed doesn't exist, not here, anyway.

4 comments:

  1. I never have understood how that sort of stuff happens. Once, a piece of mail was delivered to our house addressed to Wendy with her married last name, which she had given up as soon as she got divorced. Funnier were the phone calls we got asking for her by that name. Hysterical. One of life's little mysteries.

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  2. She didn't mention my ex was hispanic, and the phone calls to my married name were made by Spanish-speakers.

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  3. When we get stuff like that, in my wasband's name who has never lived in TX, I put RTS on the envelope and drop in the nearest drive by mail box. That usually gets our address off "the list".

    It is so unnerving to see mail in our box with his name on it. I really don't like it at all.

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  4. Let's hear it for shredders.

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