by Christi Parsons
The subject line of the email was inviting. “You, me, a TV, and a bowl of chips,” it offered.
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Alas, the email was only a political come-on, this time from former president Bill Clinton. He was inviting the addressee – God knows how many of them, actually — to apply to sit down in front of a big screen with him and watch his wife, Hillary Clinton, in an upcoming Democratic presidential debate. Not exactly the cozy evening the subject line conjured up.
But on-line political solicitors are adopting a rather familiar tone these days, using all kinds of email tricks to avoid going straight into the “delete” pile without ever being read.
One widely read political operative drops emails headed “hey” or “hi,” skipping the capitalization with the effect of suggesting a real-live personal note.
Democrat Barack Obama pulled the “Hey” trick this week, with his own personal handle in the “send” field. His campaign also cleverly put a “Re:” in front of another recent email, presumably to make recipients feel like they were already invested in the conversation.
Michelle Obama went one better on Saturday, firing off a message entitled “Re: Hey.”
Interestingly, Republicans don’t seem to be as casual in their correspondence. Emails from presidential candidate John McCain forthrightly include his name in the subject line.
And missives from former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s press secretary announce themselves as “Hizzoner’s Highlights” – and then deliver a report that manages to be friendly and still candid about its mass dissemination. (“Cheerio!” began a note about Giuliani’s recent trip to London.)
Carol Darr, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who studies politics and the Internet, offers this chilling thought: “If they’re working with a good database,” she says, “they can micro-target pretty well.”
Yikes. What’s next? The note from Bill offering your favorite brand of chips?