We have a confession to make. In our downtime, we write letters to companies about their advertising.

It's fun. Why? We're not really sure exactly. Maybe it's frustration. Maybe it's boredom. Maybe it's a way of evening the score. After all, who says that stupid messages can only come from companies to consumers? It's a two-way street.

It all started when we working at our first agency together. The agency did an ad that featured witches, and they were surprised when they later received letters from an association of witches who did not appreciate how they were being portrayed in the ad. These were real witches, or at least people who really believed that they were witches, and the agency took the witches' concerns to heart. They wrote back and apologized. They even later pulled the ad, bowing under the pressure of the powerful witch lobby.

I guess we can't blame them in this case. If there were a group of witches that told you they were really angry with you, you'd probably want to do whatever it took to get them to calm down.

A while back, Wrigley's did a TV campaign claiming that the temperature of the human mouth is a steamy 98.6 degrees, but that the temperature of a Winterfresh mouth is "much, much cooler." We put the gum to the test. We wrote the client and told them that we had taken our temperature before eating the gum and that it was 98.6 degrees as they had promised, but that after we had eaten the gum our temperature remained a constant 98.6. We also told them that we repeated the experiment rectally, with the same results. The Wrigley's people were great about it. They took time to respond, patiently explaining that the claim was meant figuratively, and that consumers should not expect to see any actual temperature difference after chewing Winterfresh gum. They even included a folder full of information about the history of chewing gum, which was really interesting.

Why do we do this? What's wrong with us? Can't say for sure. But we have learned something. Companies really read, take seriously, and sincerely respond to, consumer feedback. And that means that all of us - any of us, individually - can make a difference in the advertising we see and experience every day. All we have to do is take the time to write.

Why should only crazy people get to do that?