A potential privacy risk and a major annoyance, a drain on the environment, are some of the things that postal junk mail can be, and who would've guessed it could serve as the inspiration for 10 funny videos? That's exactly what happened when a band of talented video producers accepted a cash challenge from a leader in stopping junk mail and managing catalogs, ProQuo, to create short, funny videos conveying the annoyance and waste of paper junk mail. ProQuo, after sifting through 160 total entries, recently posted the Top 10 funniest videos at http://www.proquo.com/videocontest and is encouraging consumers to judge the entries for themselves.

A part of ProQuo's ongoing mission to educate consumers about how to take control of their personal information and stop unwanted junk mail is this competition. The average adult receives approximately 40 pounds of junk mail each year, which is an unnecessary drain on the environment and also a nuisance.

That's why contest finalist Zack Scott decided to create the video, "Sick Mailbox," about his mailbox becoming sick from way too much junk. He was motivated to enter the contest by the environmental consequences of junk mail. "I hate thinking about how it goes from a tree to a factory, to my mailbox, to my shredder, to my trash can and finally to a landfill," said Scott. He added: "So much time, money, energy and resources are wasted daily."

Dave Wolfe, Another video finalist, said his team was specifically attracted to the identity theft angle. "The ProQuo creative brief captured our attention; we decided on the identity theft angle and conceptualized it in about 20 minutes," said Dave. He added: "This led us to the overall creation of the video and how it affects the day-to-day lives of people in their homes."

By examining the damaging effects junk mail has on the environment, Brett Slater dreamed up his winning entry. He imagined what trees would say if they could talk and came up with the animated "Poor Eddie." Slater declared: "I thought we should hear from the trees. I'm sure they miss each other after they are hacked down by loggers. I was able to show this using new animation software".