PR Man Transformed Direct Marketing Plans

John Jay Daly, 80, a longtime Washington public relations and marketing executive who developed the idea that consumers could opt out of direct-marketing advertising campaigns, died Aug. 27 at Sibley Memorial Hospital. He had a blood infection and heart disease.

Mr. Daly was a colorful, gregarious figure well known to generations of Washington journalists, lobbyists and business executives. Since 1976, he had been president of Daly Communications, providing public relations advice and private coaching to business leaders. He offered practical tips on everything from running an efficient meeting to preparing for appearances before congressional committees.

According to his Web site, his "basic thesis" for corporate executives and public officials was that "most business speeches are too long and too dull."

In 1970, when Mr. Daly was vice president of the Direct Marketing Association, Congress was considering legislation that would have restricted direct-mail advertising. Companies would have been required to get the explicit approval of each household that wanted to receive what is popularly known as "junk mail."

Mr. Daly devised a controversial plan that allowed individuals to send postcards to a central address to opt out of direct-mail advertising and have their names removed from mailing lists. Some of his colleagues predicted that the policy would kill the direct-mail industry, but in fact they discovered that many people actually wanted to receive the advertising. As a result, marketers could focus their campaigns on the people interested in their products. The concept was later applied to "do-not call" lists and to the "unsubscribe" option on many e-mail advertising promotions.

Mr. Daly, who dubbed himself a "postalologist" for his encyclopedic knowledge of postal regulations, represented clients before Congress and postal commissions. He also worked behind the scenes as the old Post Office Department was converted to the U.S. Postal Service in 1971.

Earlier in his career, when he worked for the National Institute of Drycleaning, he claimed credit for expanding dry-cleaning facilities in the former Soviet Union. In 1959, while Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was having a summit meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mr. Daly arranged for the Soviet leader's wife to tour a modern dry-cleaning plant.

John Jay Daly was born Dec. 13, 1928, in Washington and grew up in the District's Chevy Chase neighborhood. His father, John Jay Daly Sr., was a poet and drama critic at The Washington Post.

The younger Mr. Daly was the first student to enroll at St. Anselm's Abbey School (then called the Priory School) in Northeast Washington and graduated in 1946. He received the school's first distinguished alumni award.

After graduating from Georgetown University in 1950, Mr. Daly was a photographer at The Post before serving as a Navy photo officer and public information officer aboard an aircraft carrier during the Korean War. He remained in the Navy Reserve for 17 years.

Mr. Daly briefly returned to The Post before beginning his public relations career with trade associations and private agencies. He was considered an excellent public speaker and spoke in 45 states about business, marketing and Washington history and lore.

He compiled a 50-question quiz about the city and said he had never found anyone who could answer all the questions. A sampling: