Direct Marketing Association

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) was founded in 1917. According to its website it is "the largest trade association for businesses interested in direct, database, and interactive global marketing, with about 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 foreign nations on six continents".

Pro-junk mail activism
DMA is heavily involved in fighting proposed legislation to create "do not mail" lists that would give consumers the ability to stop excessive junk mail from being sent to their homes and businesses. Such a list would be similar to the federally-mandated "do not call" list that restricts telemarketing calls.

In 2006, DMA created the front group Mail Moves America to organize opposition to no-junk-mail list legislation. DMA argues that "do not mail lists" are bad public policy because 1) millions of jobs depend on junk mail, 2) junk mail is a conduit through which consumers receive "local information," 3) Post offices derive needed revenue from junk mail, and 4) legislation is not needed for consumers to remove their names and addresses from marketing lists. DMA consistently refers to junk mail as "advertising mail," to deflect the negative connotations of the phrase "junk mail"

DMA's pro-junk-mail arguments closely resemble strategies used by the tobacco industry to fight public health measures: 1) shift the focus of the debate onto the economic contribution that the detrimental product makes to the country, 2) argue that legislation against the damaging product is unnecessary and that personal responsibility and industry self-regulation are preferable to legislation, 3) argue that advertising is a conduit through which important information is delivered to consumers, and 4) argue that businesses would be seriously disadvantaged by legislation of the damaging product.

Directors
Accessed December 2007:
 * Chairman: Donn Rappaport - President/Chairman, American List Counsel, Inc.
 * Vice Chairman: Kelly B. Browning - EVP & Chief Operating Officer, American Institute for Cancer Research
 * Treasurer: David Williams - President & CEO, Merkle Inc.
 * Secretary: Eugene R. Raitt - EVP & Chief Direct Marketing Officer, AIG
 * Leslie Abi-Karam - EVP & President, Document Messaging Technologies (DMT), Pitney Bowes Inc.
 * Christine Aguilera - President, SkyMall, Inc.
 * Bill Bass - President & CEO, Fair Indigo
 * Ronald L. Bliwas - 2005 Chairman, President/CEO, A. Eicoff & Company
 * G. Steven Dapper - Chairman & Founder, hawkeye
 * Allen W. Dyon - Chief Marketing Officer, DMRA
 * Andrew Goldberg - President/CEO, Publishers Clearing House
 * Susan Goodman - Chairman & CEO, Goodman&Company
 * John A. Greco, Jr. - President & CEO, Direct Marketing Association, Inc.
 * John Healy - President & CEO, PRIMIS Marketing Group, Inc.
 * Carla Hendra - Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ogilvy North America
 * George Ittner - President, The Territory Ahead
 * Rebecca L. Jewett - 2004 Chair, Managing Partner, Windward Group
 * Stephen M. Lacy - 2006 Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Meredith Corporation
 * Yuchun Lee - Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Unica Corporation
 * Steven A. Lightman - President & CEO, The Sharper Image
 * Wes William Lucas - President & CEO, QuebecorWorld
 * Linda MacMaster - Senior Managing Director of Member Experience, AARP
 * E. Donald McKenzie - President & CEO, Direct Group
 * Mary L. Miller - SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Petsmart
 * Daniel Morel - Chairman & CEO, Wunderman
 * Kathleen Olvany-Riordan - Vice President, Global CRM, Kraft Foods
 * Gerry Pike - Managing Director, DMSA, Inc.
 * Wesley D. Protheroe - President & CEO, Gerber Life Insurance Company
 * Joel Quadracci - President & CEO, Quad/Graphics, Inc.
 * Robert A. Quigley - EVP & CMO, Charter Communications
 * David Shepard - President, David Shepard Associates, Inc.
 * Arun Sinha - Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Zurich Financial Services
 * Robert Stagno - General Manager, Central Marketing Group, Microsoft Corporation
 * Debra Taeschler - President & CEO, Grafica Group Inc.
 * Markus Wilhelm - Immediate Past Chairman, Partner, AKS Marketing & Media LLC
 * Brian Wolfe - President, Time Consumer Marketing, Time Inc.

Contact details
1120 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 768-7277 Fax: (212) 302-6714 Web: http://www.the-dma.org

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Stanley Greenberg
 * Kevin Ryan
 * Lester Wunderman
 * Citizens United for the Bush Agenda

External Articles

 * Lyndsey Layton, "Efforts to Block Junk Mail Slowed: Postal Service Argues Against Registries to State Lawmakers", Washington Post, March 19, 2008; A13.