Hey, What Ya Wanna Know?

THE PRIVACY PUNDITS are whining about direct marketers in general-and database marketers in particular-having too much of the public’s personal information stored at their virtual fingertips.

Phooey. I’m ready to give them whatever they want.

I came to this realization during my flight from the East Coast to the great Pacific Northwest this summer to attend the National Center for Database Marketing conference in Seattle.

The airlines are already storing data on passengers thanks to frequent flyer programs, I thought. So let’s take it a step further than where people fly to regularly or whether they want an aisle or a window seat.

The way I see it, the more data travel marketers have on me, the more friendlier my time in the skies will feel. For example, all the airlines are welcome to enter this nugget into their file: I don’t want to be served food I can’t identify without a forensics test.

Here’s another tidbit, free of charge. I’d be more than happy to provide a list of all the recent movies I’ve seen, as well as my reviews. (Please. “Lost in Space” was bad enough the first time I paid to see it. I sure as heck won’t fork over $5 to watch it again.)

And please don’t seat me behind a yahoo who thinks it’s appropriate to recline his seat all the way at the first opportunity so I can spend the flight staring into his follicle-challenged scalp.

How about it, folks? Have an adversity to in-flight burritos stuffed with runny pink cheese? Wish SkyMall would feature more gifts suitable for cocker spaniels? Want to be seated next to crying infants? Nauseous ones? Speak up!

The airline datameisters should know what America wants, for the better the public is served, the more they’ll wing their way across this great land of ours.

Or, hey, maybe they’ll get frightened and just take the bus. At least then consumers could take comfort that the ride would be more pleasurable than sitting through “Speed2.”