Ever since I donated a little bit of money to my presidential candidate of choice I've found myself on nearly every mailing list from A to Z. To entice donations a lot of them will have a free "gift" of stickers and other bric-a-brac. I usually just ignore and throw them out put them in the recycling bin.
However I made the mistake tonight of opening one of them. It was like the mother lode of free gifts.
Inside I found the usual "fancy" mailing labels imprinted with my mailing address framed in faux gold, as well as stickers ("Take time to dream"). Nothing too out of the ordinary and about on par for these things. Then I found a note pad (hmmm, kind of useful), a couple bookmarks (I am in the middle of a new Kundera book...), and a small wall calendar (Kind of perfect for my cubicle at work).
Then the kicker: a freakin dope dream catcher. I'm always such a sucker for dream catchers. I like the folk myth behind them and I just think they look dope. Then to REALLY tug on my heart strings...which are always ultimately tied to my wallet, I found a Certificate of Appreciation presented to ME (and my name was spelled correctly!) that (kinda presumptuous of them actually...) said "in recognition of your generous gift to St. Joseph's Indian School and the Lakota children whose lives will be happier and futures will be brighter." UGH. Now I REALLY have to actually send them some money. That is some brilliant marketing.