Throwback Thursday: Ohio's junk mail madness

• Retailers no longer needed to label mail with residents' exact names or addresses, which were costly to acquire.
• Instead, they could send out advertisements, catalogs and product samples in bulk for mail carriers to deliver to their entire routes.

Between the lines: The change was meant to increase postal revenue and make mail sorting more efficient, but it angered pretty much everybody.

🗑️ Residents complained of endless mail to throw away.

😪 Postal workers grew tired of stopping at every house, every single day.

📰 News publishers, who feared the mail would cut into newspaper ad profits, turned the issue into a cause célèbre.

• A Lancaster Eagle-Gazette headline from 1954: "Who Likes 'Junk Mail'? — Nobody!"

The intrigue: Carriers had to deliver that mail, but residents were not obligated to accept it.

• The Post Office Department suggested residents write "refused" on the envelope to have it returned or destroyed. (You can still do that to this day!)

Yes, but: The deluge of criticism continued until Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield finally relented and discontinued the practice in most cases.

• "Marketing mail," as it is now known, remained lucrative for businesses and USPS alike — and eventually eclipsed first-class mail in 2005.