FAQ

Q1 : What is the best way to keep track of said "unpalatable" brands ?

Honestly there is no one-size-fits-all, but here are some solutions that work for most people. Try one, try them all, see what suits YOU best. It's really not complicated — you can start immediately and easy adjust and improve along the way.

1. Pen & paper : works fine initially, depending on your organisation. The main drawback is that if you lose that piece of paper.. well, no harm done. Just start over, it's not a race, it's a process. A process that can be started, stopped, resetted, changed, etc. Another drawback is that a paper is not easily searchable.. aside from using your (or someone else's!!) eyeballs obviously! On the other hand it is easily to annotate with any information, or signs you like — more on this below, in Q2.

2. A note app : convenient and handy since most of us have a cellphone nearby all day long. Digital notes can easily be edited whether on the move (walking, public transport, voice-to-text, etc.), or at home, at work — anywhere really — even in the dark, which is obviously harder for pen & paper. It is tupically searchable (depending on the app functionalities) which is great when the number of brands start to be significant. The only drawback, really, is that the information is typically "unstructured", consisting generally in a number of lines listing brand names, sometimes with additional information next to the names.

3. An spreadsheet file : convenient when easily accessible from any device via a cloud service, it also offers both a simple line & column format that can capture and structure the information. It is searchable, data can also be filtered and you make all sorts of calculations, statistics and more This is the weapon of choice for community members that want, or will want to analyse their data at some point — more on this below, in Q3.

Q2 : Okay, I am now taking note of the brand names that have targeted me with unsolicited ads. What other information might, or should I be capturing ?

The most common additional information community members capture is the number of unsolicited ads they have been subjected to, per brand.

This allows to appreciate and quantify the level of "annoyance" each brand creates, and in turn, this helps define a proportionate response, should you wish to. Capturing data can be key to making decisions and implementing change. For example, you may decide to not purchase any item (for a given period — or until the end of times!) from highly intrusive brands, but you may give a pass to brands you have seen only a limited number of unsolicited ads from. That number, if you follow this logic, is for you to decide — everyone sets their own rule, more on this below, in the "Rules" section.

Q3 : Great. I have been doing all this for a while now, how can I measure my progress and my impact ?

Q4: by the way, what does classify as unsolicited ads?