Don't be offensive

Unless you are a political lobbyist or work for a religious organization, it usually is common-sense to leave allusions to politics and religion out of your customer correspondence.  It's too easy to offend, and everyone has a different opinion and isn't really interested in getting advice from a vendor or associate on how / what to think about sensitive topics. 

Let's add another topic to the avoid-list; sports.  I received an email last Friday describing a product introduction from a popular text search product.  The email was a mini-press release, detailing a new alert program.  So far so good. 

But - for some reason, the announcer felt it would be good idea to illustrate the service by slamming a certain collge basketball team.  I happen to be a huge fan of this team, and this email came the morning after we went down in flames (to LSU) in the NCAA tourney.  So - needless to say - the email hit me the wrong way.

And of course, it is because I was a little bit sensitive at that time.  But really -- how many people did that company offend?  Who knows?  Any alum or fan of that school who got that email is offended and probably won't want to use that service anymore.

So - why do something like that?  Advertising already is interruptive and by it's nature a little bit offensive becuase it assumes we should stop our busy day and learn about the ad's message.  Why make it more offensive by including content that is sure to offend at least someone?

I'm still annoyed.  And my friends at WOMMA would tell you that an annoyed customer is not a good thing, since they tend to talk.  And normally, unlike what I'm doing, they would give details of who/what.