I had a dream last night … (OK, I didn’t really have this dream, but please imagine that I did. It makes a better story …)
In my dream it was the first day of “Worldwide I Hate Spam Week,” in which people all over the globe unite to boycott companies who invade their computers with email spam and pop-up ads, refusing to buy their products for the entire week. There were well-publicized lists of these companies, so everyone could see what products to avoid.
Expedia and Travelocity saw their bookings drop to zero. American Express Blue not only saw new card enrollments plummet, transaction volume became negligible. News media publicized these stories and many others, adding momentum to the anti-spam movement.
Spontaneous anti-spam rallies started happening concurrently all over the world. Corporate communication departments scrambled to get their CEOs on TV to pledge to end all unsolicited electronic marketing. It became regular practice to avoid buying from any company that sent you a spam, well after the week ended. The age of spam was coming to an end …
… could it happen? Or are we stuck wading through this—the most uncreative kind of marketing—for the rest of our lives?