I have not and never will be a customer of AOL. But I can’t help but admire their attempts to get me to not throw away their CD mailing on sight. Obviously, the shrink-wrapped cardboard sleeves don’t cut it – I get 2 or 3 of them a month, usually wrapped in magazines. They go straight in the trash, usually unseen.
Their first concerted try to get me was the standard DVD keepcase. A little bulky in the mailbox, but this worked from their perspective, since I didn’t throw it away. I used it for a spare DVD and I ripped off the label, but it didn’t go in the trash. So a small victory for them.
Next up was the metal tin. Now this is actually a very cool thing. Nice design, very sturdy. Not even any stickers on it, just funky designs screen printed right on the metal. It’s kind of like a very thin altoids box. I use it to put candles on, and think of AOL every time I see it. Nicely done.
But what I got in the mail today topped it all. Maybe they’ve been doing this for a while and I’m the last to know, but damn, I’m still impressed. They sent me a AOL CD in a wooden box. Actual wood that came off a tree. With little plastic hinges and a magnetic clasp, and joined sides. I would actually feel bad throwing it away. I would almost pay money for it. I will treasure it always. Damn you AOL!
Yet I’m left wondering… is there any way they can top this? Only time will tee.
I miss the days when they used to send me diskettes.
I’d just clear the diskettes, and use them for my own purposes.
Finding uses for their CDs was harder, although at one point, I did build a giant parabolic mirror out of about three hundred of them and some chicken wire. My wife made me get rid of it because every time it swung east during certain times of day, the heat beam tended to make the paint blister on the shed…
Still, I have hope. Maybe they’ll start sending out AOL programming on those little megabyte-laden USB chips that I can clear and fill with MP3s…
I have seen many a dorm room decorated in festive AOL CDs. Every time CompuServe asks me about customer service, I reply with my anti-CD pollution diatribe.
Their little metal mailing tins make great gifts – a light sanding, a coat of a solid color metallic paint and a piece of felt on the inside, and it’s a nice little case for postage stamps, address labels and sealing stickers for someone who still believes in writing letters on paper.
I never got a DVD keepcase disk, but now I’d like to get a wooden box disc so that I can find some way to reclaim and reuse that box, too.
The discs themselves are just coasters. Quite literally, two circles of felt and they’re good to go, saving all of my wood furniture from water rings.
If you put the cd in the microwave, shiny side up, and nuke the bugger for 5-8 seconds, it sparks really cool. Then you can use it as a coaster or whatever. I prefer just pitching them.
Yes, but after you spark it off in the microwave you are left with a really foul smell. Think burning plastic and burning metal. It took days to get that smell out of my house.
