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sweepstakes contest mailings generated adverse publicity for
petitioner, because some individuals who received the mailings
believed the solicitations were misleading. The adverse
publicity petitioner experienced in conducting its direct mail
campaign is discussed more fully infra.
Although W&H attempted to convert some of petitioner’s
sweepstakes donors into straight donors by sending them non-
sweepstakes mailing packages, the conversion efforts were not
successful. W&H concluded that the only way to obtain further
contributions from sweepstakes donors was to continue to send
them sweepstakes contest mailing packages.
During 1985 through May 1989, sweepstakes contests mailings
were used heavily in petitioner’s direct mail fundraising
campaign. Beginning in late 1987 or early 1988, petitioner
sharply reduced the numbers of sweepstakes contest prospect
letters it mailed, because petitioner realized the sweepstakes
contest prospect mailings were not helping petitioner to develop
a strong housefile. In his letter dated January 28, 1988, to the
W&H executive who handled petitioner’s account on a daily basis,
petitioner’s executive director responded as follows to the W&H
executive’s prior argument that petitioner should not reduce the
level of its 1988 prospect mailings so greatly below the level of
the 1987 prospect mailings, because the 1987 prospect mailings,
the W&H executive claimed, had added 1 million new names to
petitioner’s housefile:
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