# Mail from Neilson Media Research - Don't throw it away! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 9, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425 "2015-01-09T19:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/1 "2015-01-09T19:08:19Z")
Yesterday I got mail from Neilson Media Research. Yes, I believe this is the Neilson Rating company. Anyway, I opened it, and there was a short survey in it that they wanted me to send back. But ALSO:\*\*\* there were 5 $1 bills in the envelope!\*\*\* I was a bit surprised, to say the least. And given this, I’m sure they’re not sending a whole lot of these out, but I thought I’d warn everyone just in case. J. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/2 "2015-01-09T19:24:38Z")
I think I remember getting something like that in the mail before. A survey with some cash ($2-$5). I think they were trying to guilt people into responding. I wonder what their ROI is with a marketing move like this? ---
**Author:** ![IaMoDiNaRy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IaMoDiNaRy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IaMoDiNaRy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/3 "2015-01-09T19:26:15Z")
I got one of those letters back in the late 80s… But they only enclosed $1 back then. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/4 "2015-01-09T19:27:34Z")
I sometimes get those, and this is one reason why I open ALL my mail. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/5 "2015-01-09T19:42:58Z")
I suspect they are looking for people for more in-depth opinions. I believe this survey only asked how many TVs do you have, how much do you watch, and are you Hispanic or not. So it seems they are looking for Hispanic reviewers. Not being Hispanic, I probably won’t get “a call-back”, as it were, but you never know. J. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/6 "2015-01-09T19:46:11Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > i sometimes get those, and this is one reason why i open all my mail. ///operant conditioning complete ///execute plan brainvade ///endop ---
**Author:** ![Vita\_Beata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/7 "2015-01-09T19:46:51Z")
Yes, and those are 5 brand new crisp dollar bills, thank you very much, and I also wonder about their ROI with this strategy. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/8 "2015-01-09T20:52:37Z")
I few years back I got the same thing. I also filled out a log of my TV-watching habits, which netted me an additional $30 (if I recall correctly). The survey seemed primarily concerned with whether I was Latino. It asked about race as well as which languages were spoken in the household. The log didn’t have any way to enter information on what I watched online, as opposed to over the air or cable. So I left it blank except for an explanatory note about how the television was on whenever I was home, and I watched television shows on it, but at no point did I “watch television” in the way their logbook was designed to measure. Even at the time it struck me as an archaic method of gathering data. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/9 "2015-01-09T21:38:57Z")
I got a similar mail from Arbitron (radio rating folks) $1 initially $1 for agreeing to do the radio diary for a week $1 for actually doing that Brian ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/10 "2015-01-09T21:44:17Z")
Furthering this thought, why don’t some of you tell us about all the great prizes you have won from Publishers Clearinghouse and similar sweepstakes? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/11 "2015-01-09T22:10:37Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Furthering this thought, why don’t some of you tell us about all the great prizes you have won from Publishers Clearinghouse and similar sweepstakes? My brother knows a guy who won $5,000 from Publisher’s Clearinghouse. Ever since that happened, I always send the entry form back. Why not? It’s genuine. I also recently won a skateboard from an online contest, which I sold for $25. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/12 "2015-01-09T22:12:29Z")
I got something similar, with a two-dollar coin in the envelope. 🙂 (Yes, we have $2 coins in Canada.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/13 "2015-01-09T22:24:05Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I got a similar mail from Arbitron (radio rating folks) > $1 initially > $1 for agreeing to do the radio diary for a week > $1 for actually doing that > > Brian We had a similar offer at my parents’ house a couple of decades ago but keeping up the diary was a _lot_ of work for three or five bucks. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/14 "2015-01-10T02:46:42Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > We had a similar offer at my parents’ house a couple of decades ago but keeping up the diary was a _lot_ of work for three or five bucks. We did that once too. I can’t remember exactly what really weird shows we said we watched or it helped them get renewed. That made it worth the pay. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/15 "2015-01-14T00:50:25Z")
We got a fiver from Nielsen once. Sure made a windfall split 4 ways. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/16 "2015-01-14T00:58:09Z")
I got $30 from Neilsen for filling out a TV watching diary. I see at as a win-win. I get money for some brief paperwork, and the shows that I like to watch get more ad money and stay on the air longer. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/17 "2015-01-14T20:44:15Z")
We were a Neilsen family for a while, but we didn’t have to keep a diary - there was a gadget that automatically recorded what channel we were watching and for how long. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/18 "2015-01-14T22:21:49Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I got something similar, with a two-dollar coin in the envelope. 🙂 (Yes, we have $2 coins in Canada.) Inflation. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/19 "2015-01-14T23:32:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > We were a Neilsen family for a while, but we didn’t have to keep a diary - there was a gadget that automatically recorded what channel we were watching and for how long. > > Regards, > Shodan Now we know who to blame. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425/20 "2015-01-14T23:47:08Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > We were a Neilsen family for a while, but we didn’t have to keep a diary - there was a gadget that automatically recorded what channel we were watching and for how long. > > Regards, > Shodan My diary was only for a week - perhaps longer surveys get the equipment. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mail-from-neilson-media-research-dont-throw-it-away/709425.md?page=2)