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So AT&T had been sending out text messages last week to nearly all of its 75 million mobile customers urging them to watch the season premiere of American Idol, which AT&T just happens to sponsor. In other words, AT&T has been sending text spam to its own customers.
Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless, said the message was meant as a friendly reminder. "We want people to watch the show and participate," Mr. Siegel said. He added, "It makes perfect sense to use texting to tell people about a show built on texting." Because AT&T is a sponsor of "American Idol," only its customers can use their cell phones to vote for their favorite singers via text message -- so viewer participation means more revenue for AT&T. We doubt that any of this revenue will be allocated to help save the jobs for the 12,000 employees who are scheduled to be laid off. Mr. Siegel of AT&T defended the use of the medium given that voting by text message had played a big role in "American Idol." "Text messaging is the perfect way for us to tell people about this wildly successful show and to watch it," he said. These texts didn't cost the recipients anything, and AT&T says it is possible to opt out of receiving them, but when did it become acceptable for big companies to require their customers to opt out of receiving spam? They shouldn’t be spamming their customers in the first place. If they are going to spam, they could have sent a text requesting job leads to help the 12,000 employees they declared surplus and are scheduled to be laid off on February 6, 2009. Now that would have helped qualify AT&T as a possible Idol or at least having some Humanity. |
