Playboy ads still angering Utahns

Sally Jensen is furious about junk mail that landed in her mailbox.

Especially this type of junk — a product that she, along with many Utahns, consider trash.

Jensen, who lives in Kaysville, joins a group of Utah County families who want to know why provocative Playboy promotions were sent to their homes unsolicited.

One such mailer was sent addressed to Jensen's husband two weeks ago.

"I was very shocked and very upset to find one in my mailbox," she said. "I have four young boys under age 11 who very often get the mail. I was so glad that I got the mail that day. That is the last thing I need them to see."

The Deseret Morning News has been contacted by families across Utah that have received the same mail. The paper published a story Saturday about Utah Valley families shocked last week to find the magazine's mailer when shuffling through their stacks of bills.

Some say the ads, which show scantily clad women, are addressed to teenage sons.

Mapleton's Margriet Foutz wonders if the magazine obtained her 14-year-old's name from Utah Valley State College. He's taking concurrent classes from the Orem school.

The Playboy ad received in the mail by Camille Maher's son included his middle name — which she said has only been listed on his UVSC school records.

A Deseret Morning News reader who lives in Sacramento, Calif., said her 17-year-old son received the same in-the-mail offer as the teens who go to Orem's Mountain View High School.

"It frightens me thinking how many of these youth may have gotten the mail and possibly sent in for it," Shannon Donaldson said.

Mark Welling, a student at BYU-Idaho, said he received one in Rexburg.

Utah college and school district officials deny giving Playboy access to their records.

However, in the past, many student directories, which included the names, addresses and phone numbers of students, were available for the public's perusal on school Web sites.

UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said officials at Utah schools have been concerned for the past few years about students getting mailers such as those from Playboy.

As a result, a policy was created: Only the student's name and phone number will be published.

E-mail or street addresses won't be available in student directories or on Web sites, he said.

Don Munce, chief executive officer of the National Research Center for Colleges and Universities, said his firm did not supply Playboy magazine with names and addresses either. "It was not us. It never was us. It never will be us."

Munce said any data gathered from high schools across the country was shared only with schools or companies with a product to sell to college-bound students, such as class rings and yearbooks.