"Idiot Letters: One Man's Relentless Assault On Corporate America" Is Hilarious
Written: May 27 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A humorous, sarcastic look at corporate advertising---what if you took it seriously?
Cons: Changing type face of some "letters" may bother folks with vision problems.
The Bottom Line: Very funny book. Buy it, read it, pass it on to a friend. It also makes a great gift.
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| Don_Krider's Full Review: Paul Rosa - Idiot Letters: One Man's Relentless As... |
What if you accepted "truth in advertising" as a fact and then confronted "Corporate America" about the "facts" presented in their own advertising? What if you were really, really sarcastic and willing to pass yourself off as an idiot in letters to company executives?
That's the premise behind author Paul Rosa's hilarious book, "Idiot Letters: One Man's Relentless Assault On Corporate America."
The author:
Rosa, a stand-up comedian and writer (at least three volumes of his "idiot letters" are in print), plays the "idiot" well in this fun jab at all that is holy in big business.
Rosa also claims to have created such "popular bumper stickers" (sold at Spencer Gifts) as "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student" and "DARE To Keep Cops Off Donuts."
The book:
Rosa's "style" is sarcastic throughout "Idiot Letters." This is not the great American novel, so Rosa's style here is to present full-page reproductions of letters he has written and of the responses he has received to those letters, sometimes with "post-it" notes added to pages to clarify things that otherwise might not be clear.
Rosa's letters are hilarious because you are along for the gag. The responses he gets are fascinating, funny and revealing about the corporate mentality at the same time.
The concept:
Like an eagle on the hunt, Rosa seeks out his corporate prey and then pounces on the unsuspecting corporate critters with his typed, U. S. Post Office-delivered letters (all written in 1993, a bit before the overwhelming use of email).
If he gets no response, he writes again until he gets an answer to his letters. If the business responds, he still writes again to question the answer he gets, regardless of the answer he got.
Rosa prods his way up the customer service chain of command, from the poor customer service clerk who sends a "generic" response until he gets as far as he can go, often to the very top executive of the company.
Sometimes, the companies just don't "get it" --- they don't know he's just pretending to be an idiot and they are courteous in a most proper business manner.
Sometimes they do "get it," and the responder plays along with an equally humorous response to Rosa's original letter. Sometimes, they even send him gifts to amuse and/or appease him! America, what a country!
Inspiration:
"Idiot Letters" was inspired by an "idiot letter" Rosa received from Pizza Hut. It's the type of junk mail each of us throws away every day.
The "personal letter" to "a preferred customer," supposedly from the vice president of marketing for Pizza Hut, asks Rosa, "Perhaps you can help me figure something out. It's been awhile since you ordered from Pizza Hut..."
The letter goes on to praise Rosa as "you're the kind of customer we'd like to see more often" and provides discount coupons so he'll order a pizza.
Rosa pondered the letter, then he wrote a thank you letter for the coupons, saying he appreciates being the "type of customer we'd like to see more often," and then he inquires, "What I would like to know, however, is which kind of customer wouldn't you like to see more often?"
The response: "I could, of course, give you an honest answer, but our corporate lawyers won't let me..."
Other examples:
As you go through the 160-plus pages of "Idiot Letters," Rosa offers numerous such encounters where he writes corporations and they write back, including (you'll have to read the book to find out the responses he gets, I don't want to spoil that for you by revealing them here):
* He poses as an angry consumer who writes Maytag about their "repairman, who never has any work due to the dependability of the products he services. If this guy never has to do anything, why not fire his useless butt and pass the savings on to the consumers?"
* He writes the Mennen Company about their anti-perspirant "Speed Stick," asking "where the perspiration goes that isn't 'permitted' to exit naturally through my skin. Is it backing up dangerously somewhere inside my body...?"
* He asks the Orkin Exterminating Company why its exterminators wear helmets when killing pests and "how do they feel about all these deaths?"
* He buys a TV dinner and notes the words "serving suggestion" on the front of the box next to a picture of the meal. He writes Safeway Stores where he bought the product to ask why these words are there. He asks, "Of course it is 'suggested' that you eat the very food that comes in the box! Are there actually people who would cook your product, then grow confused and order a pizza?"
* When the folks at Marigold Soft Bathroom Tissue fail to list a "suggested serving" for their toilet paper, he writes, "How much toilet paper use is too much? I go through about twelve rolls a week..."
" He complains to Rand McNally about their maps, noting that boundary lines appear on all their maps designating cities, counties and states, but "I spent over ninety minutes searching for the elusive line near Holly, Colorado" and he couldn't find the line. He wonders "if the lines are intentionally buried, so as not to distract motorists" and seeks a reply.
* Seeing a magazine advertisement depicting a giant eagle landing on top of a tiny CITGO Gasoline Company station with the headline "Fly With The New Super Power," Rosa becomes a panicked consumer. He writes CITGO, "That bird looks like it must be about 13 foot high with a wing span of over 30 feet! I'll bet it scared the photographer fella half to death (if he survived)." Rosa asks the company for more information on this "gigantic animal," adding, "if it comes near my ranch I'll open fire with everything I got."
* He wrote Bruce Tracy, editor of Doubleday and Company Books, to thank him for buying his first book manuscript, asking, "Dear Mr. Tracy (Do you have a brother named 'Dick'?)" The response: they still published this book.
The book:
More than 160-pages of "Idiot Letters" that are often laugh-out-loud funny. There is no index or bibliography. The paperback book, first published in 1995, does suffer slightly from the lack of a table of contents or index because it makes it difficult to return to a particular "letter" if you're looking for it in the book.
There are a few illustrations (such as an autographed photo from ABC-TV newsman Forrest Sawyer, one of the folks he tackled in the book who "got it" regarding Rosa's sarcastic letters).
Minor distraction: long "letters" appear in small type due to length and page reproduction needs, while short "letters" appear in larger type for the same reasons. If you have vision problems, this might be bothersome.
Recommendation:
"Idiot Letters: One Man's Relentless Assault On Corporate America" by Paul Rosa is an overall joy with some good belly laughs.
Author Paul Rosa has delivered his "Idiot Letters" with a creative, intelligent mind and this irreverent book may encourage you to send some "idiot letters" of your own (in Rosa's case, the payoff included getting several promotional gifts, including nine T-shirts, from various companies).
Recommended:
Yes
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Don_Krider
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Fan of power pop (Raspberries, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, The Knack, Romantics, Slade,Sweet...) --- "Play On"!!!
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