![\"Don_t_panic\"](\"http:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/don_t_panic.jpg\")
\u201cThe marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as “Your Plastic Pal Who’s Fun To Be With.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as “a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes\u2026”<\/em><\/p>\n Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopaedia Galactica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future defined the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as “a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.”\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This abridged passage from The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em> is a fine example of the comedy that can be found in the marketing world, and if you\u2019ve read Douglas Adams you already know that he had a lot to say on the subject of marketing people. But on special occasions in the real world, comedy writes itself, and one needs look no further than a post on Spamhaus.org last week to realize that Douglas Adams, while he was a tremendously funny man, didn\u2019t have to work too hard when writing on the subject of marketers.<\/p>\n Spamhaus, venerable defenders of all things spammy, is a not-for-profit organization with a very noble mission: to track spam and spammers, generate spam lists, and work with law enforcement to identify and track malware spammers worldwide. The organization\u2019s done a lot of good, and naturally, that\u2019s sparked the ire of spammers, who\u2019ve targeted the organization<\/a> in a number of attacks.<\/p>\n Spamhaus doesn\u2019t just focus on the evil, malicious spammers, either. Sure, there are plenty of those to go around, but there\u2019s also a wealth of marketing spammers who still don\u2019t seem to get that their own activities are counterintuitive to their cause. In fact, we\u2019ve seen plenty of focus on marketing wonks<\/a> of late, thanks to the tireless activities of countries like Australia<\/a> and the United States. Government agencies in both nations haven\u2019t been shy about levying heavy fines on companies that exhibit antisocial behavior and contravene the respective legislations in those countries.<\/p>\n And as venerable as the organization is, even Spamhaus cannot help but find the comedy in last week\u2019s post<\/a>, when they point out that they were spammed by the U.S. Direct Marketing Association (DMA)<\/a>. \u201cSpamming is always bad,\u201d Spamhaus writes, \u201cbut it is just plain foolish to spam addresses at spamhaus.org.\u201d Too true, as the DMA sent out a spam message and included Spamhaus founder Steve Linford in the message. But the DMA didn\u2019t stop there. It spammed a lot of people, Spamhaus reports. \u201cGiven the number and diversity of the spamtraps that received this spam, we are 100% confident that the DMA also spammed a very large number of active user mailboxes.\u201d<\/p>\n And it doesn\u2019t stop there. Spamhaus \u201calso heard from from [SIC<\/em>] several prominent anti-spam researchers, who also received this same spam at their personal email addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, there\u2019s stupidity and then there\u2019s stupidity. The DMA\u2019s tagline is \u201cAdvancing and Protecting Responsible Data-Driven Marketing,\u201d but as with many marketers, words are just that: words. And Spamhaus calls them out, point out in its FAQ that \u201cUnfortunately the US Direct Marketing Association wrongly advises DMA members that the sending of unsolicited bulk email (AKA spam) is an ‘acceptable marketing practice’. This extremely bad advice by the DMA has tricked many DMA members into spamming and consequently damaged the communications and reputations of companies who believed they were following correct advice.\u201d<\/p>\n So should we forgive them for using the word \u2018responsible,\u2019 when they don\u2019t seem to back it up with their actions? Probably not, because this is exactly the kind of behavior that gives truly responsible marketers a bad name. We\u2019ve seen plenty of examples of how marketers try to circumvent spam filters<\/a>, and by the very admission that they\u2019re circumventing something meant to keep them out, we begin to understand just what they\u2019re made of.<\/p>\n