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Look up door-to-door in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Door-to-door is a sales technique in which a salesperson walks from the door of one house to the door of another trying to sell a product or service to the general public. A variant of this involves cold calling first, when another sales representative attempts to gain agreement that a salesperson should visit. Door-to-door selling is usually conducted in the afternoon hours, when the majority of people are at home.^{[citation needed]}

The model[link]

Historically, products sold door-to-door will be of the same variety that can be purchased at large discount stores. The products accounting for the largest share of direct-sales revenue include cleaning supplies, cleaning equipment, appliances, magazine subscriptions, and home improvement products.^{[citation needed]} The largest subset of these would be the home improvement products/services where items sold could be new or repaired roofs, siding, new replacement windows, and decorative stone. As of 2008^[update] the business model of many companies that participate in this type of direct marketing has changed with the growth of the Information Age. Products sold door-to-door are now more likely to be more subtle in nature: such as sheets of coupons to events or local businesses, season tickets to local professional sports teams (both of these are known in the industry as "Cert [or certificate] Sales", or subscriptions to home television services or broadband internet services. Telecommunications companies like Verizon Communications (FiOS), Comcast (Cable television and internet) and AT&T (U-verse) all contract with various marketing companies for nationwide sales fulfillment at the residential level. While the older model of the salesman carrying a bag of goods on his shoulder to sell to the public still can occasionally be seen, the majority of today's salesman specialize in the newer field of account execution or literature distribution.

In many countries, encyclopedias, including the Encyclopædia Britannica, were frequently sold by door-to-door salespeople, although this practice has also seen a decline in recent years.

Banning[link]

In the United States, some communities attempted to criminalize this form of selling by passing what is known as a Green River Ordinance which bans all door to door sales. The Supreme Court has ruled that an ordinance that totally bans door to door selling is unconstitutional, thus rendering the ordinances void of any any legal value.^{[citation needed]}

Door-to-door shipping[link]

A similar, but unrelated term is door-to-door shipping,^{[clarification needed]} which is a service provided by many international shipping companies. The quoted price of this service includes all shipping, handling, import and customs duties, making it a hassle-free option for customers to import goods from one jurisdiction to another. This is compared to standard shipping, the price of which typically includes only the expenses incurred by the shipping company in transferring the object from one place to another. Customs fees, import taxes and other tariffs may contribute substantially to this base price before the item ever arrives.

Door to doorers[link]

In Ireland the distribution of bags and tags by charties collecting clothes and other items has become widespread. The people that distribute these items have become known as the door to doorers.

Religious work[link]

Jehovah's witnesses are known for door-to-door preaching.

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John Safran
Born	(1972-08-13) 13 August 1972 (age 39) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Documentarian Comedian Radio presenter
Known for	John Safran's Music Jamboree John Safran vs God Race Around the World Sunday Night Safran
Website
JohnSafran.com

John Safran (born 13 August 1972) is an Australian documentary maker and radio broadcaster, known for combining humour with explorations into religion and other issues. His more famous television segments include turning the tables on tabloid current affairs host Ray Martin by arriving unannounced at his house in John Safran: Media Tycoon (an early pilot for a TV series), having a fatwa temporarily placed on Rove McManus to satirize the fatwa process and sneaking nine young men into an exclusive Melbourne nightclub by disguising them as members of American nu-metal band Slipknot.

Early life[link]

Safran was born in Melbourne, Victoria. After attending North Balwyn Primary School he was sent to Yeshivah College, an Orthodox Jewish high school in St Kilda East.

In Year 12 he formed the hip-hop group Raspberry Cordial with his friend Chris Lumsden. They played to some success, receiving high rotation airplay on the city's community radio, playing many gigs in Melbourne and coming second in the RMIT Battle of the Bands competition. Their debut album was Melbourne Tram, of which Safran apparently has hundreds of unsold cassettes in his bedroom to this day.

After winning a government youth music initiative, they followed up with Taste Test, of which 500 copies were pressed. Of those only 93 sold, so the remaining 407 had to be crushed. Interviewed on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope show in 2003, he said that Raspberry Cordial "broke down the wall that Eminem's been able to walk through".

Safran attended RMIT to study journalism, a career he tried for a while but eventually dropped without completing his degree. He then began work in advertising for Clemenger Harvie. During this time he wrote copy for Mazda, Village Roadshow and Sea World.

[edit] Race Around the World

Safran's first experience of national fame came via Race Around the World, a television competition for young documentarians run by the ABC. Safran's segments scored well with both the judges and the public audience, Safran topped the viewer poll. He was, however, disqualified for a segment taped in a confessional booth (the program forbade hidden camera footage), the disqualification of the segment and subsequent loss of points meant that he finished last in the first season of Race Around the World.

Safran started the race off timid and tame, being locked inside an Osaka subway station in his first entry. He soon however broke what he called the "fear barrier" to film his now infamous segments. These included: streaking naked through the streets of Jerusalem wearing only the scarf and beanie of his favourite football club, St Kilda; being baptised in Africa; placing a Voodoo curse on his ex-girlfriend; sneaking into Disneyland via a work area and attaching information plaques he made about founder Walt Disney to a display (highlighting little known Disney "facts" such as Walt Disney's alleged early support for Adolf Hitler); and getting a Catholic priest to review death metal music.

After the race[link]

After this brush with fame the ABC commissioned two 30 minute TV pilots from Safran.

One pilot called John Safran: Media Tycoon focused on the media industry. It became infamous for a segment where Safran turned up to Ray Martin's home, then host of tabloid current affairs TV show A Current Affair, and harassed him in the style characteristic of A Current Affair by sorting through his bin, which was later satirised by comedian Shaun Micallef. Ray was in contact with the ABC and specifically warns Safran in the segment that he's spoken to Roger Grant the then Head of Corporate Affairs at the ABC. Martin's connection with this executive at the ABC is suspected to be a reason the series never made it to air. The Ray Martin segment was later played on Media Watch on the ABC and on Enough Rope.

The second pilot was titled John Safran: Master Chef. This pilot focused on the food industry. Notably it featured a cooking segment where Safran prepared a beef dish. The twist comes when he arrives in an abattoir and shows detailed footage of cows being slaughtered to complete the dish.^[1]

Though all unsuccessful, the pilots became hits via the Internet among university students.^[2] Safran also recorded a parody of Baz Luhrmann's song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" entitled "Not the Sunscreen Song" which includes lines such as "Never live in Adelaide, it's a hole" and "Remember, you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex". It peaked at #20 in 1998 and was nominated for an ARIA. In Triple M's 2005 Greatest Songs Ever Written and Performed Since the Beginning of Time poll, "Not the Sunscreen Song" came in at #706 - one spot above "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder.^[3]

Safran also presented segments for the Seven Network's now defunct Late Report, some were also screened in the United Kingdom with Channel 4's Disinformation program. Never escaping his wild side, Safran attained infamy and police attention for a stunt to try and coerce cricketer Shane Warne into breaking a "no smoking" clause in an advertising contract with a nicotine gum manufacturer. Safran drove a remote controlled seagull with a cigarette onto the pitch during a match. He was arrested for "pitch invasion", but the charges were dropped.

As of 2002^[update] Safran had been a regular host of Melbourne community radio station 3RRR (Triple R) on its morning show "Breakfasters". Additionally he currently co-hosts the weekly radio show Sunday Night Safran on national youth radio station Triple J with Father Bob Maguire. After a lengthy hiatus late 2008 due to a busy filming schedule, "Sunday Night Safran" returned to the airwaves on 12 July 2009.

SBS documentaries[link]

In 2002, Safran launched his documentary series John Safran's Music Jamboree. The show was a novel approach to documentary genre, combining Safran's comedic talent, personal passions, and typically outlandish stunts with solid information and interesting trivia. He at times raised the ire of his former high school principal. On one occasion Safran and his crew stormed the courtyard of his former school and amid shocked religious students and teachers, he and his crew began to dance to the song "Footloose". Screened on SBS on Saturday nights, it opened Safran's work to a whole new generation "GENERATION Y", or youth 12 to 20 years old, who had not seen the original Race Around the World material. The show impressed the Australian Film Institute so much that it won two AFI awards in 2002; "Best Comedy Series" and "Most Innovative Program Concept".

In August 2004 he debuted his new show John Safran vs God, also on the SBS television network. The first seven episodes were typical Safran informative satire, but the series' finale was something else. It featured Safran being exorcised of demons which had allegedly possessed him during his dabblings with world religions. The exorcism was performed by well known Christian fundamentalist Bob Larson. It has been claimed that it was all faked for cameras, but Safran has neither confirmed nor denied these rumours. However, in an interview with an Australian radio personality, Safran did say that he "felt something was going on", and that "there was something about the expression on my face". In an interview on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope program, he claimed that he had no memory of the events during the exorcism, and stated that the footage shown on the show was merely the most interesting from hours of footage. John Safran vs God won an award in the 2005 AFI Awards for "Best Comedy Series".

Before the exorcism, Safran had gone to Mozambique to have a curse, previously placed on the Australian national football team by a now-deceased witch doctor, lifted. He and former Australian football team captain Johnny Warren were covered in chicken's blood in the process. Subsequently, on 16 November 2005, Australia qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1974.^[4]

In 2005–06, Safran co-hosted a television talk show entitled Speaking in Tongues with his collaborator Father Bob Maguire, a Catholic priest who Safran met during the filming of John Safran vs God. The 12-part series broadcast on SBS Television and began on 7 November 2005.^[5]

[edit] John Safran's Race Relations

Safran spent portions of 2007 in Los Angeles shooting a pilot entitled John Safran Saves America for American MTV in which he tried to convince emos to fight in Iraq, hit the couch with therapists who claim they can cure people of racism, and attempted to become gay to increase his standing in Hollywood.^[6] Safran stated in an interview that he hasn't heard back from the production company Reveille Productions whether the program has been purchased for production or not but as the months go on, "the answer isn't getting any yesser".^[7]

In 2009 John Safran's Race Relations, an eight part comedy documentary television series, was picked up by the ABC.^[8] As part of this series, on 10 April 2009, John Safran took part in a devotional crucifixion, an annual event occurring on Good Friday in the Philippines. Safran was crucified in Barangay Kapitangan, Paombong, Bulacan, just outside of Manila along with three other men and one woman.^[9] He had nails driven through his hands and feet and hung on the cross for five minutes before being taken down and given medical treatment in a nearby tent set up for treatment.^[10]

In 2010 John Safran's Race Relations was nominated for a Logie Award in the category of Light Entertainment. Other nominees in this category included Australia's Funniest Home Videos, Rove and Mornings with Kerri-Anne.^[11]

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (October 2011)

• John Safran at the Internet Movie Database
• Speaking in Tongues website^{[dead link]}
• Enough Rope with Andrew Denton Interview with John Safran
• Interview with John Safran conducted after Speaking in Tongues
• Watch John Safran: Media Tycoon pilot made for the ABC
• Watch TV pilots made for ABC
• Sunday Night Safran Safran's Triple J radio show homepage
• World Screen Article about John's deal with Reveille
• Princess Pictures Princess Pictures website