Here it is: the word “personal.” There’s nothing personal about this envelope. It has a nonprofit stamp. A sprayed bulk-mail barcode, and a handwriting font. Oh, and there’s no clue who sent it without opening it up. No return address or even a celebrity name on either the front or the back.

I didn’t even bother opening it. Whatever charity it is, I don’t want to spoil my relationship with them just because their envelope copywriter is a liar. This is a better outcome for them, because if I did open it, I might not ever give them money in the future. But still, it means the cost of sending that mailer to us was wasted money.

As a “bonus,” it’s addressed to Dina and D Dina Friedman, who are the same person (my wife). They do get points by combining names from their database at the same address, saving resources. But as far as “personal,” this is an epic fail.

I’ve been saying publicly since at least 2002 that Honesty is one of the three pillars of “the Magic Triangle” of business success (the other two are Integrity and Quality. If you start a relationship with a lie, you will never gain that credibility back when (NOT if) your lie is discovered.

A better approach: follow the late advertising genius David Ogilvy’s admonition to “tell the truth—but make it fascinating.” And if that sounds hard, let’s talk. I specialize in writing honest copy (and giving honest advice) that fascinates. And I deliberately set up this month’s book review to hopefully provide that fascination—notice how the bullet sequence teases and (hopefully) increases reader interest.