How Powerful is the Turn-Off Power of Spam?

JayBonci asks: "Here's a question to the Slashdot readerbase. How powerful is the turnoff power of spam? With an upcoming political election in the United States, and a nation not very-well defended against mass unsolicited emailings, what kind of anti-marketing medium is spam? Could a spammer push out millions of: 'V0te for G3orge W. Bush!' or 'J0hn Kerry for Presidnet@', in the hopes to turn off (or on) voters. Spam marketing penetration is terrible (I've heard figures like .001%), but how powerful is its anti-marketing capabilities? An interesting discussion for the Slashdot audience." How often do you make the decision to NOT buy something form a company because you know they engage in spamming activities?

Comments

Enough is enough

[aztektum]

"V0te for G3orge W. Bush!' or 'J0hn Kerry for Presidnet@'"

Please /. editors run stories through a spell check. It should be "'Vote for George W. Bush!' or 'John Kerry for Presidnet'."

well ...

[Anonymous Coward]

let's see.

1) I don't buy Viagra.

2) I don't like to watch pictures of my naked next door neighbour.

3) I'm quite happy with my university degree the way it is, thanks.

4) And, I'd rather not apply for another mortgage.

All in all, spam doesn't turn me off of any companies, because none of the companies that I *would* have bought from (wisely) don't use spam in the first place.

in this election

[a11]

.001% may just be what wins the chair

Re:in this election

[HeghmoH]

Last time around, a change of only about 200 voters would have changed the outcome. (The difference in Florida, IIRC, was 400 votes, and half that number needs to change.) Out of a hundred million voters, that's 0.0002%, so you were (amazingly) overestimating the quantity needed.

Re:Probably not very powerful

[Enrico Pulatzo]

|<3rry

use the &lt;

HTML Entities are your friend, or else a powerful enemy bent on global domination. I forget which

Also, preview is a friend

Are kidding me?

[yawgnol]

What a strange example to use in your premise!

You think SPAM is going to have an effect on this election? SPAM!? You must be living in a different America my friend, because you can send Men In Black to beat me with rubber hoses while writing "Kerry Killed Your Cat HA HA!" in blood on my wall and I will still drag myself on broken arms to the polls to cast my vote against Bush on election day.

So no, we're well $#%@ beyond spam making a difference at this point...

For me personally, not so powerful in politics

[astrashe]

The whole campaign is so ugly that aggressive spamming wouldn't seem like a really serious annoyance to me. I'm more worried about the lies and character assasination.

Forget about it

[GCP]

Great, another Michael Moore. "How can I trick people into voting my way?"

A mailbox full of V1@gra spam doesn't make me hate Pfizer. I think Michael Moore is an obnoxious liar, but his propaganda tactics aren't going to get me to change my mind and vote for Bush in protest.

I'm so sick of the emotion-laden nonsense from both sides, when there are genuine, thoughtful, interesting, and useful arguments to be made that might allow for creative solutions. Instead, though, people like this questioner seem to feel that deceit is a better approach for dealing with significant issues.

Not at all

[nusratt]

"How often do you make the decision to NOT buy something form a company because you know they engage in spamming activities?"

It's irrelevant.
I get 100-300 pieces of spam daily. For all but 5-10 pieces, all I ever see is the sender and the subject line, not the body.
Even if there's a recognizable brand-name in the subject line, the spam's usually from a sender who's NOT associated with the brand-name (e.g., Viagra).

In the few cases where the sender+subject plausibly *seems* like it might be from the legitimate brand, I never confirm it by opening the mail, for fear of whatever security vulnerability it might contain.

So I virtually never know that the brand-owner should be blamed for the spam.

California Spam King Bill Jones running for Senate

[dananderson]

Spam King Bill Jones is running for U.S. Senate from California. He doesn't have a chance, but to make sure his spam activities receive broad daylight, please link to my website http://billjonessucks.com/ until this November 2nd. Thanks. We now return you to your regular programming. . .

marketing IS antimarkenting

[Pegasus]

For me, tv commercials already have such effect. For 90% of the junk there is, i remember it as NOT to buy.

If the majority of population would do the same, the world would be a better place :)

Re:This is more delicate than that

[tverbeek]

Zionists have already used this technique...

Kind of like you're doing right now, trying to smear and discredit "Zionists" by portraying them as lying spammers? This is a tradition that goes back at least a century, with the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (an anti-semitic hoax) being a prime example.

How Powerful is the Turn-Off Power of Spam?

[John Hasler]

Very. Take a woman out to dinner, offer her spam, and just see how far you get.