You’re sitting down, about to enjoy a meal. Or maybe you’ve just put your feet up after a hard day. Or perhaps you’ve gone to sleep and have your passport ready for a trip to REM-land. The phone rings. Like the Pavlovian dog that most of us are, you answer it. On the other end is someone offering you aluminum siding, a newspaper subscription, or a chance to help some orphans. You hang up, before or after cursing the foul creature who interrupted you.
I start to ask a question of a DMA representative named Lisa Caugherty, a perky blond in her 30s, but she insists that I register before she can say anything. When I return a few minutes later, fully registered, she discusses telemarketing with all the zeal of a recent religious convert.
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I ask her about the fresh fruit and the sign about junk food. “Private Citizen, Inc., is supposedly going to be demonstrating, bringing junk food,” says Caugherty. “We say to them, ‘Come on down, drop your junk food, and have some real food for thought.’”
“Connie, Fox 32 is still there,” the walkie-talkie voice interrupts. “There’s a reporter from Direct Magazine, too, but she doesn’t want to go out in the rain to interview [the demonstrators].”
Bulmash’s crusade has generally been as lonely as it appears to be today. “Three years ago, state representative Ellis Levin introduced a bill which would limit the powers of telephone solicitors. I testified on its behalf. One legislator came up to Levin and said, ‘You have to understand. I empathize, but I have to solicit a lot of campaign funds through telemarketing.’”
After the talk, I ask Christie what legislation against fraudulent marketing the DMA supports, and what upcoming legislation the group opposes. She declines to discuss those questions.
