First-Class Advice

By DAVID ELLIS/

Direct-mail advertisers are worried about the sudden desire among consumers to cut down on junk mail. More than 1 million people, an elevenfold increase over last summer, have signed up for the post office's preference service, which eliminates many third-class and sales mailings. The Direct Marketing Association blames the backlash on the 1989 book 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. The best seller's No. 1 recommendation: get rid of unnecessary mail. "If only 100,000 people stopped their junk mail," the book claims, "we could save about 150,000 trees every year."

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart