A history of junk mail in the UK

In 1863, William Smith published Advertise. How? When? Where?. The book is a rare first-hand account of advertising in the second half of the 19th century and is still being read by advertising historians today. Judging by the book's preface it is unlikely Smith expected his work to be so influential; he starts by addressing imaginary critics, whom he assures that he is not vain enough to set myself up as a book writer and that he merely aims to commit to paper a few notions I have from time to time picked up in the great school of observation. However, he was also rather opinionated. The rest of the book berates advertising practices in over 50 industries.

Smith was very much an advertising man; he wanted advertising to become more professional and respectable. I am not an advertising man — I hate advertising with a passion — but I do share some common ground with Smith, at least as far as my writing is concerned. Like Smith, I don't see myself as an author, and I am certainly not a historian. I have, however, attended the same school of observation and I also have plenty of things to berate.

My main qualification for writing this history is that I was the UK's junk mail expert in the noughties. I have since moved onto other things, which is partly because junk mail has become much less of an issue. Of course, there is still an awful lot of junk mail; it is still a nuisance and an insanely polluting advertising medium. And sooner or later junk mail will be on the agenda again. When that happens history is likely to repeat itself. I am hoping this history will help future junk mail campaigners.

The history of junk mail in the UK is very much a work in progress. I am hoping to add some more chapters, but for now I have split the history into three sections:

I first look at how junk mail has been regulated over the years. At some point I hope to add chapters about the junk mail industry's propaganda and the abundance of junk research.
Next, I discuss the odd practice of using the electoral register as a commodity. The junk mail issue is a classic conflict between privacy and environmental concerns on the one hand and economic arguments on the other. Nothing embodies that debate more than the sale of voters' personal data. And yes, the economic arguments always persuade our political overlords.
The final sections looks at the myriad of industry-run and commercial opt-out services that have come and gone over the decades.

Chapter overview

Part 1 Junk mail regulation

1. Conjurers and witches

The history of advertising goes back a few centuries. Throughout this period advertisers have leeched onto new technologies. Invariably, this upset some people and led to regulation.

2. The all-deafening blast of puffery

Advertising has always attracted plenty of criticism. Apart from complaints about advertising excesses there is a long-standing intellectual dislike of advertising.

3. Early legislation

Early advertising legislation mainly took aim at advertising excesses and sandwich-men. Obscene and indecent advertising mail also tended to spur politicians into action.

4. The rise of junk mail

Unaddressed junk mail was on the rise in the 1960s, so much so that even the Post Office started delivering circulars. During these years the term ‘junk mail’ was adopted from the USA.

5. Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act 1998 introduced the “right to object” to the processing of personal data for “direct marketing purposes”. This right was somewhat watered down by parliament but remained an effective way of stopping unwanted junk mail.

6. The GDPR and UK GDPR

The GDPR has made it easier for people to object to unsolicited marketing. However, it has done very little to stop the trade in trade personal data.

7. Voluntary responsibility

Between 2003 and 2012, Defra and junk mail industry had a voluntary responsibility agreement aimed at cutting waste. It was an abject failure that ended in tears (for Defra).

Part 2 Selling voter's personal data

8. A convenient and cheap mailing list

Advertisers started using the electoral roll as a mailing list in the 1960s. This became a political issue after they started targeting young adults with “literature on sexual matters”.

9. The invention of the edited register

The sale of the electoral register was first reviewed in 1998. Instead of banning the practice voters would be allowed to opt out of the use of their data for commercial purposes.

10. The High Court intervenes

In 2001 the High Court ruled that your right vote can’t be conditional on having your details sold to junk mail companies.

11. The Data Sharing Review

The final attempt to abolish the for-sale register came in 2008, when a Data Sharing Report recommended scrapping the register. Eventually, government decided to reject the idea.

12. The Open Register

Since 2014 local election offices are required to discourage voters from opting out. The information they provide about the for-sale register was written by the marketing industry.

Part 3 Opt-out-paradise

13. The Mailing Preference Service

The first official opt-out scheme for junk mail was launched in 1983. Initially, awareness of the MPS was low but the service eventually took off in the early noughties.

14. Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out

Royal Mail runs its own opt-out for unaddressed mail, and it may even pre-date the MPS. The service is so ineffective that an attempt was made to kill it, in 2011. The attempt failed.

15. The Your Choice Dummy Scheme

In 2008, the DMA launched an opt-out scheme for unaddressed mail distributed by DMA members. They were more or less forced to do so by Defra, and it shows.

16. The Door-Drop Preference Service

Defra made one more attempt to get the junk mail industry to clean up its act. A new opt-out service would solve the junk mail issue once and for all. Alas, it all ended in tears.

17. The Fundraising Preference Service

In 2015, a campaign by the Daily Mail lifted the lid on what had long been a taboo: charities are the worst junk mail offenders. The result was yet another opt-out service.

18. Junk Buster

Junk Buster was my own attempt at making opting out of unwanted junk mail easier. The website let you sent opt-out requests to up to six different opt-out schemes in one go.

19. Stay Private

Stay Private was a service run by Consumer Focus that let you register with three opt-out services for junk marketing. I am to blame for its untimely death.

20. Postal Preference Service

The Postal Preference Service was a commercial opt-out / opt-out service. It was launched in 2000 and backed by Royal Mail and PTT Post.

21. Opting out using data protection notices

There have been two commercial opt-out services that used data protection notices to stop addressed junk mail. One of the websites, OptOut UK, is still going (sort of).

22. Opting out, opting in

Choose Your Mail encouraged users to register with the Mailing Preference Service to stop unsolicited mail and to then opt in to receiving adverts in specific categories. The concept didn’t work, because it is fundamentally flawed.

23. Green Preference Service

The Green Preference Service was created in 2011 and enabled people to receive junk mail via email rather than snail mail. The DMA was apparently impressed. The public wasn’t.

24. ALLOW

ALLOW was yet another opt-out / opt-in service. It promised a reset button for junk marketing and wanted to become a middleman between its users and advertisers.