"Sorry to bother you about money": Taddle Creek sends up circ

The always-cheeky twice-annual Taddle Creek continues to poke fun at the audience-building conventions of the mainstream magazine world by reproducing its direct mail package on its website, complete with the outer envelope, a hilarious cover letter, a flyer and order form. All are intended to lampoon the various devices and language that circulators use to lure in readers.  

Keeping the joke alive is, not coincidentally, in service to a special offer that ends November 6 of $15 for two years.

"Odds are you’ve heard all kinds of good stuff about Taddle Creek’s recent junk-mail subscription campaign. If you used it to subscribe—thanks, and enjoy! If you tore it up into little pieces and sent it back, well, you weren’t the only one.

"But if you weren’t lucky enough to have one of the other magazines you subscribe to sell Taddle Creek your address, fear not! Now you can view the magazine’s junk mail on-line, including envelope, letter, and flyer." Even better, you can take advantage of the special subscription offer without all the annoying paperwork.

A mere $15 gets you two years of Taddle Creek (four issues!), and you can pay with your Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, or via PayPal. You’re welcome."

The text of the cover letter is a classic. And this is probably the only magazine in the world which would include a grammatical mea culpa in its direct mail for using the phrase "most unique" in a previous mailing.