Consumers take revenge on mail-shot crazy AOL

Tired of being bombarded with AOL CDs through their letterboxes two US techies are responding to the internet giant's wasteful marketing drive by returning one million AOL CDs to the company's head office.

Jim McKenna and John Lieberman, who have so far collected almost 80,000 AOL discs, said they plan to dump the discs on AOL's doorstep, while announcing: "You've got mail."

McKenna, who, along with fellow geek Lieberman, created the site NoMoreAOLCDs.com, said: "AOL produces millions of CDs, which get immediately thrown away. Our goal will be accomplished when AOL stops sending out unwanted CDs, shakes our hands and says: 'You made your point, and it was kind of funny'."

They may be waiting a long time. AOL has been mailing out unsolicited software to consumers for 10 years now - a practice which has since been picked up by most other ISPs. At the peak of the home internet boom in 1999 AOL sent out 40 million CDs. In 10 years it has signed up 35 million users and research firm IDC predicts that just one per cent of the CDs mailed out - at a cost of $1 each - have been used to connect to AOL's internet service.

This means that in 1999 alone at least 39,600,000 CDs ended up going straight in the bin.

Other consumers, have pushed themselves to find new and inventive uses for AOL's CDs. Some have chosen to use them as drinks coasters, while others have used the shiny discs as Christmas tree decorations.

Recently AOL released a series of limited edition CDs to promote the launch of AOL 8.0. A number of these, designed by stars such as Tom Cruise, have already found their way onto eBay.

Stefanie Olsen writes for News.com