Kate Zambreno

"Joe's dead!" my grandmother would bark into the receiver at telemarketers trying to sell her deceased husband magazine subscriptions or new phone service. Junk mail addressed to my grandfather, dead for over thirty years, always littered her kitchen table.

It's a bizarre truism of our consumer society that corporations now own your name long after you no longer exist. Jim Veilleux became aware of this twelve years ago when in charge of a massive MCI marketing campaign, during what he refers to as the "heyday of long-distance competition," when he would read scrawled pleadings on return mail. "They would write, 'Please stop mailing, he's been dead for three years," the Charlotte, N.C. man remembers. "Some of the comments that were written on the envelopes made it pretty clear that they were upset."

Individuals can stay on direct-mail and telemarketing lists for an average of six and sometimes up to 25 years after they're underground, Veilleux discovered, which can serve as a daily opening of wounds for the still living. "I think they see it as a reminder that they lost somebody." After the MCI incident he went looking for a better list of the deceased, a so-called suppression file, and found it lacking in the national database.

So two years ago Veilleux founded Address Guardian, a free service that registers those that have passed away with companies in the business of name trading. There's also an optional service for $9.95, which actively contacts mailers. So far many area funeral homes have signed on for the service. "Direct marketing to the deceased is a tragedy that has been tolerated for far too long," says Veilleux.

(2003-01-15)

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