A year ago I catalogued every piece of junk mail addressed to my mother in June 2019. She received 546 piece of mail – 47 pounds worth. I promised at the time to see how much she receive a year later. Here is my report. In June 2020, she received 277 pieces of junk mail weighing 19.25 pounds. This is about a 50% reduction from the previous year. The distribution of topics seems about the same as last time except there was much less in the way of Medicare/Social Security scare mail. The number and degree of cash inducements fell way off. In June 2019 she received over $28 in enclosed cash. In June 2020 the total was $2.96 and $4 in checks. There were still quite a few gifts, but they also tailed off. In 2019, she received 7 full-size calendars, this year only 2. The picture below shows all the gifts enclosed; quite a few note cards and miscellaneous stuff including a pair of kids socks and a Tibetan prayer flag. The plants are ours.
Mailings to hawk various pills and creams were frequent. Joint pain was the most common target. Here is a list of things “your doctor doesn’t want you to know about”: Organic Silica; Geranlygeranone; Lavendula Oil, Menthol, Turmeric, Aloe Vera, Cetyl Myristoleate; Copper, Bromelain, Gingko, Green Tea, Ginseng, Rosemary, Blue/green algae; Celadrin (?), Acetyl myristoleate; Boswellia serrate gum; curcumin; Andrographis paniculata extract, hyaluronic acid; CBD + terpenes; collagen; Telocell(?); and methyl salicylate.
Based on these two points, the half-life of junk mail is 1 year. If the trend is linear, the number of pieces of mail received in June 2021 should be around 140. I’ll try to continue this exercise to see if the data is consistent with the hypothesis.
The Aging Report 