A new kind of viral marketing

I get lots of spam, mostly for my older email addresses. I get at least 200 a day. Sometimes it makes it into my regular mail, and twice today I have received a spam message that is not really a spam message.

The email says it is a joke. It involves an old lady and her dog and cat. The trick is that the joke is unfinished. The email promises to tell you the punch line if you email the unfinished joke to 10 people. The payload is a spam link at the end off the message.

There is no way that you will ever find out the punch line. By the time I received the message it had gone through a dozen emails. Figuring that out of the ten forwards, only 4 will continue to forward it, it means that more than a million people read the email, and the spam link that went along for the ride.

Chain letters usually promise bad luck for breaking the chain, or else promise huge wealth. As such they are flawed. People recognize them for what they are. This letter only promises a good laugh.

Genius! Everyone will want to know the punch line. No one ever will, but they will pass the message along so that they can have at least a chance of finding out how it turns out.

I think I will research the perfect internet joke – a little dirty without being obscene, involving a puppy, a baby and beautiful woman. I’ll have a link to FreeNameAStar.com in the message and a million people will see it.

If you get my email, be sure to pass it along.