Have You Seen My Dog?

They appear in our post boxes and we never read them fully, all we do is glance at them to ascertain that they do indeed constitute junk mail and then we toss them in the bin. And why not? They do not have any direct bearing on our lives; they do not come in envelopes with windows so we do not need to pay anybody anything, nor is any money owed to us. All it is, is a piece of paper with printing on it advertising someone’s little business, home industry, some lost pet or something. Why should we care at all?

Just because. No, really. At least two people went to a great deal of trouble to see that, that flyer reached you. The very least you could do is accord them the respect of sitting down and having a good look at it and reading it fully. Think how you would feel if you put a lot of effort into a report at work that you put into your boss’s in tray, and when you popped in a few hour’s later you saw it sitting in the recycling bin, unopened and untouched. That would really knock the old ego down a few notches, wouldn’t it? It would give you a “What the hell?” kind of feeling. And deservedly so. It would be your time and your energy and your resources in that bin, not just a bunch of paper.

The same principle applies to a printed flyer or leaflet advertising someone’s business or home industry. These people work hard at keeping their businesses afloat and they have to drum up publicity somehow. If you were working from home or were starting up your own business think about how you would go about advertising it. Printed flyers and leaflets are the easiest way. They are also reasonably inexpensive depending on how elaborate you’re willing to get. Plain black and white is obviously the cheapest option but a little colour and flair to catch the eye would probably be worth the extra money.

Another very important reason why you should always read the flyers in your post box is that very often that’s how people advertise their missing pets. Think of how awful it must be to lose your beloved Rusty, the Beagle. To take the time to make hundred of flyers with a colour picture of him and a huge reward sign and still know in your heart that 90% of your work will end up in the trash, not even looked at. Or looked at briefly enough for someone to say, “Cute dog but we don’t need a puppy,” and then trash it. Its always junk mail until you lose your pet and then you’re the one at the printers, with your favourite photograph of Lucy the Labrador who jumped the fence during the thunder storm. Sniffing back tears and hoping desperately that someone will have spotted her or have kept her safe while you stuff post boxes in your neighbourhood.

Maybe that’s the real reason why we should always read flyers, pay attention to their pleas and give them the respect that they deserve, because we never know when we may be in a position when we will need ours to be read in turn. Another less pressing but no less important reason is that it’s polite, and in a society, where moral degeneration is on the rise, we could all do with being a little more polite, even though no one will know about it except us. In a way that’s the epitome of civility, being civil when there is no one there to witness it.