One of the few good things about junk mail is that it can be turned it into art. Take, for instance, this 5ft tall junk mail tower made by artist Anne Cohen.

According to the Mail the tower consist of all the junk mail delivered to her by hand. For a reason not mentioned in the article the tower does not contain junk mail delivered by her postman - maybe the spike wouldn't be long enough if Royal Mail's 'door-to-door' items were included as well.

Mrs Cohen started her exhibit on 1 January and will continue turning junk mail into art until the end of the year. She hopes the tower will get people talking about the volume of junk mail delivered in her neighbourhood. She told the Mail: We just get so much junk mail. We're totally inundated. There are lots of students around here so we get masses of takeaway leaflets in particular. […] There are 200 houses in our street. Can you imagine 200 times this amount of paper?

Once the piece is finished Mrs Cohen will spray and preserve the tower so that it can go on display in a gallery.

I just came across this blog entry on the Portland Mercury website:

My step-grandfather died four years ago. He lived a full life of traveling, union activism, heavy drinking and introducing the term 'any port in a storm' into my vocabulary. He, like other senior citizens, also liked to take cruises.

Well, one of those cruise lines (Princess Cruises to be exact), still likes to send him mail, which I get for some reason. So after four years of constant junk mail for a deceased member of my family, I thought it was about time to contact Princess and let them know that their intended customer will not be taking a cruise anytime soon.

I did that this morning and they said they'd be happy to remove him from their mailing list, if I faxed over a copy of his death certificate.

And yes, they were serious.

Let me get this straight, to stop getting weekly catalogs / letters / postcards about the sweet $1199 Alaska cruise deal, I have to prove to this monolithic corporation that my grandfather is not faking his own death to get off their mailing list? Is this normal? Was I out of line to completely lose my shit while on the phone with them?

I hate you Princess Cruise Lines, I hope your ships sink. All of them.

You can't blame the writer, can you?

Junk mail sent to people who have died is still surprisingly common. The Daily Post, a newspaper for North Wales, today reports for instance that 817,024 junk mail letters were sent to people who died in the region - in only a year's time. The figures come from The Bereavement Register, a marketing company selling lists with the details of people who have died to junk mailers. Registering with the service is free, though, and may help reduce junk mail sent to a deceased relative. For more information, see the page about Junk Mail and the Deceased in the Guide to Stamping Out Junk Mail.

Last paragraph rewritten in May 2012. The originally article was a bit too full of praise of The Bereavement Register (follow the above link to understand why) - JB]

In June, I suggested an alternative for postal strikes: postmen could deliver all normal mail but refuse to deliver any unaddressed junk mail. It would hurt Royal Mail but please the vast majority of its customers - and also might put into the spotlight Royal Mail's Door-to-Door Opt-Out.

The conflict between the Communication Workers' Union and Royal Mail has still not been resolved; two more 48-hour strikes were announced by the union last week. Interestingly, Royal Mail management in York and North Yorkshire has responded by suspending the delivery of junk mail for the next three weeks. According to a Royal Mail spokesperson the strikes will make it impossible for us to deliver the services normally to our customers. The full story can be found here.

Anyone wanting to help Royal Mail coping with more strike action can opt out of its door-to-door 'service' (that is, the delivery of unsolicited, unaddressed mail) by sending an e-mail to optout@royalmail.com; by phoning 08457 950950 [The number to ring has since changed to 01865 796 988 - JB]; or by writing to Door to Door Opt Outs, Royal Mail, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX.

Be aware Royal Mail will try to discourage you from opting out of receiving junk mail by letting you sign a piece of paper that reads I understand that I may miss important information from local or national government or other publications that are sent using this service. This is a misleading text that can safely be ignored: in March this year Royal Mail confirmed to Postwatch, our national watchdog for the post, that important information from local or national authorities is not distributed via the door-to-door service.

It might be a vacation scam to avoid (see 16839.06 km), but I have to give credit to Ramada Plaza Resorts for having an opt-out policy. It's well hidden on their website, but it's there: anyone wishing to opt out of junk mail from Ramada can go to this page on its website to put a stop to it. Don't forget to select 'Opt out of all Ramada communications' from the menu…

It's been a rather quiet time, although Stop Junk Mail has set two new records. I've have sold a 'No Junk Mail' sticker to a resident in Curl Curl, a suburb of Sydney - that's a distance of 16839.06 km, well above the old record of 462.41km (Llanfairfechan in Wales). And yesterday someone from Canada (5414.48 km, assuming that the person lives in the capital) used our report service [which has since been scrapped - JB] to complain about Ramada Plaza Resorts, who continuously send her vacation vouchers and refuse to remove her address from their mailing list. The previous record holder was Glasgow (605.23km).

I had heard of neither Curl Curl nor Ramada Plaza Resorts before. I now know that Curl Curl comes from an Aboriginal word meaning lagoon and that its beach is popular with surfers. Entering 'Ramada Plaza Resorts' into Google taught me it's a company known for all the wrong reasons. According to itsbadbusiness.com Ramada is a vacation scam to avoid; ripoffreport.com warns people to stay far away from this scam company; and consumeraffairs.com states it has been deluged with complaints about the company for years.

So, when you get a voucher with a text along these lines…

This Official Registered Document confirms [Name], of [Address], is the Fully Registered recipient of the enclosed $[Amount] travel voucher. We are pleased to provide you with this special travel voucher to purchase your family's Spectacular Florida / Tropical Caribbean Cruise vacation package. In return, we request that you fill out a one-page survey evaluating your hotel and cruise accommodations at the conclusion of your vacation.

…you've been warned.