The Direct Marketing Association announced it is finally killing off the Association of Interactive Marketing after a long and sometimes acrimonious relationship with the online-specific advocacy group. The DMA bought AIM in 1998 at a time the direct marketing industry feared it would be passed by for not having latched onto the new and efficient direct marketing mechanisms available online. But even after owning AIM, the DMA retained some nervousness, especially around standards creation and ethics and legal opinions that could have negative implications for its non-interactive members. AIM's independence was significantly curtailed almost two years ago when email guidelines it was about to issue were quashed by the DMA for fear that the standard best practices in the email realm would imply that DMA members were marketing in invasive and intrusive ways. Now those members are being allowed onto the five AIM councils, and AIM will become an advisory committee within the DMA.