CVS asks: How about some dead trees and a bunch of ads with that purchase? Not in so many words, of course: that would actually give shoppers a choice.

When reader Rob Dewhirst visited CVS yesterday to buy a tube of toothpaste, the clerk rolled up a 40 inch receipt and handed it to him. Says Rob: “Most of it is coupons for junk we would never buy at CVS, and on every coupon they print inches of the same legal disclaimer, so it’s printed about 6 times on the same receipt.”

If only CVS would cover its husky-sized receipts with ads for “green” products. That would be perfect.

Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine.

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