Words don’t have to be this blatantly offensive to cause offense. Watching what you say isn’t as easy — or even as all-fire important

By Scott Swedenburg

[Editor’s Note: In an interview for our April cover story, ASPCA Senior Vice President of Development and Communications Jo Sullivan related that while images of suffering animals “work well” in television campaigns, “in the mail, we’ve tested out of that. People don’t want to see it.”]

The bigger trend might be that people are just plain tired of bad news. And that’s important information for direct-mail fundraisers.