Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Rost Spams!

Jeez Rost! Enough Already!

First it was the Whistle Blower this and the Whistle Blower that. Now it's T-shirts, mugs, and branded underwear! Postage stamps too! (Click on the graphic and get a larger view.)

For the love of God, stop it before we explode!

I'm talking about Peter Rost's Question Authority blog and accessories, which he is now promoting via unsolicited e-mail, aka spam!

[Please an update on this at "Rost Raises the Issue of Libel: My Apology"]

Subject: QUESTION AUTHORITY: THE BRAND

"Do you QUESTION AUTHORITY?" is how the message starts out.

Then he launches into a promotional haiku:

"When a company markets itself it is called branding.
When an individual promotes himself it is called narcissim (sic).
And when a shopper buys whatever is advertised it is called patriotism.
But when someone questions authority all hell breaks lose . . . so create some ruckus . . . click on this link and go shopping!"

Peter, I like you and that's why I'm giving you this tough love.

I don't want to be a dork, but your spam violates the US CAN SPAM law. You don't have a way for people to opt-out of future spam and the subject line does not accurately reflect the content of this commercial e-mail. You also need to include your postal address.

Listen to me. I send a lot of commercial e-mail to lists of people that have opted-in to receive it. So I'm not anti commercial e-mail. But you are sending this to me and presumably hundreds of other people who have not opted in to receive it. That's what makes it spam. But that's OK if you do it right.

I just had to get that off my chest.

P.S. If Peter keeps this up he'll soon be blasting out of the Pharma Blogosphere all together. Then what?

[Please an update on this at "Rost Raises the Issue of Libel: My Apology"]

1 comment:

Peter Rost said...

Thank you for the education John!

But you missed the important part:

Spam is unsolicited bulk email. Not all bulk email is spam. Not all commercial email is spam. Email must be unsolicited and bulk in order to be spam.

If an email is sent to someone with whom you already have an established relationship, who has emailed you several times, there is noooooooo spam!

Just fun . . .
:)