How to make $$$ calling 1-800 numbers

By Todd Stadler · Monday, November 20, 2000 7:01pm

But I must say that I do love that every company has an address you can write to or a phone number you can call to talk to somebody about, well, anything. They get paid to listen to your rants about food quality, package design, rumors of sinister ingredients, and, of course, the prognosticative abilities of one's victuals. Too few people take advantage of such an opportunity to be heard, and to receive free stuff in the mail.

A simple question to M&M/Mars (related to a to-be-published research project) resulted in a nice package containing stickers, coupons, "the history of chocolate", and more. A more time-intensive tape containing a potential product theme song resulted in a t-shirt for every member of the band and fourteen (!) boxes of Cap'n Crunch, even though the lawyers told us they couldn't accept unsolicited submissions. There's a gold mine here - you haven't heard the last from me on this!