David Jones is a major Australian department store that targets the middle to upper class demographics. It prides itself on customer service and it’s ‘quality’ image. So I was somewhat surprised when an unsolicited David Jones email appeared in my inbox …
The text in the orange box says “Hurry for your last chance to win one of two $5,000 shopping sprees at David Jones, simply click here to forward this email to your friends for your chance to win. Offer ends 23.59(AEST) 7th March 2007.”
Of course, you can understand what David Jones is hoping for - all these people who want to increase their chances of winning will enter their friends email addresses into the DJ database for DJ’s to then email the newsletter to them. In the process of course, DJ also builds up a nice list of future emails to spam.
The way I look at it, the actions of David Jones are no different to a professional spammer - they are actively encouraging unsolicitated emails to be sent. For any company to be doing this I would consider unethical - and doubly so for David Jones which prides itself on being prestigious with excellent customer service.
I also find it amazing that the marketing firm that came up with this idea for DJ even thought it was a good one. If I was DJ, I would be sacking the firm as simply not ‘getting’ what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour on the Net. If the marketing firm believes this sort of ‘viral promotion’ (their words) is acceptable, David Jones will sooner or later find that its’ image will become tarnished online.
2 responses so far ↓
bilbychick // Mar 12, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Absolutely! Really hate email spam, more than I even hate catalogues that flood snail mail every so often… At least it has pretty pictures! Although.. have you been getting that interesting spam lately that says that John Howard has had a heart attack?!! Are people really that lonely and sad out there that they think people will believe this crap! Let alone, are stupid enough not to go to a credible newspaper or website for the news to confirm before clicking “Find out more here”… Bahhh!!
Robert Clark // May 21, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I would have no problem with this if it had you mail through their system and include an Opt Out link in the contest if you don’t want any more offers from that contest, and of course they agree not to DB the addresses.
That way if 10 of your freinds email you, then the other freinds emailed email you, you can set a point when you can say no more.
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