We’ve blogged before about SUGGING and FRUGGING (here too) and I was recently exposed to yet another form of insidious contact disguised as research – political targeting (Perhaps PUGGING?).

While we’ve all heard of push polls as one form of using surveys for political promotion, this one was different.  I won’t name the offending organization, but in an envelope marked “Survey 2010” in American colors (trying to make look like an official Census mailing??) I received a request to send a survey to my representatives who opposed the issue of XYZ.  Oh, and if I was so inclined, I could also make a donation to the cause.

Any reasonable person would know the intent behind such “surveys,” and when future surveys arrive in their mail, email, or telephone, they may not even give them a second look.  Just as SUGGING and FRUGGING hurts the market research industry, so too does PUGGING.