Humorous mail I recieved from AFAR magazine

[The_Animus]

AFAR magazine sent me some mail offering a free trial issue. The return mail they provided had three options.


NO: Thanks anyway but please give my FREE TRIAL ISSUE to someone else.

YES: Send me my FREE TRIAL ISSUE of AFAR. Bill me later at the low rate of just $19.95 for one full year (six issues in all). That's a savings of 33% off the cover price. If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll cancel and owe nothing. The FREE TRIAL ISSUE will be mine to keep.

MAYBE: Please send me a FREE TRIAL ISSUE of AFAR to preview without risk or obligation. If I like it, I'll pay the bill you send later. If it's not what I hoped for, I understand that I can cancel and keep the FREE TRIAL ISSUE, no matter what.

[laca]

Given a random ditribution of choices and the unwillingness of most people to just say NO outright ensures that a lot of "free issues" will be distributed, which in turn might account for more subscriptions later on.

[The_Animus]

Maybe and Yes are the exact same choice. In both cases you get a free issue, and you are signed up for a subscription which you can cancel but still keep the free issue. The YES option simply provides more information than MAYBE.