With email marketing, it doesn’t matter that any financial optimism I had in 2019 is years gone. I’m getting emails from West Elm, the place I bought an expensive dinnerware set for a wedding gift and will never visit again. And I’ll be getting those emails until I die.
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They are some of the marketers who email me most frequently and are as close as an old friend. They are always trying to sell me formula or breast pumps. I don't have kids, and for some reason I'm on Menards' email list, even though I never did so of my own volition. But the $2.99 foldable laundry basket is tempting.
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In my inbox, I am the kind of person who buys monogrammed winter hats and martini glasses. I buy statement chairs and fly at least once every five years. Just when I thought technology and AI had gone too far, these companies are completely misleading me. They want me to believe that I'm not the kind of person who primarily buys clothes from thrift stores, and there's something refreshing about that.
I remember when I really looked forward to receiving email. I must have been around 12 years old. Email was a way to schedule meetings with friends and send each other stupid chain emails. The internet felt like the future, full of possibilities.
These days, it's part of every aspect of our lives, and that cacophony of noise, that incessant blaring of notifications, changes how we feel about the holidays. You don't have to be alone with your thoughts anymore if you don't want to.
Notifications will come at any time, and if you have enabled them, you will receive them. If you're planning on spending the holidays alone this year, remember this: Shop now to get 30% off men's clothing.
Interviewer: This is producer Gretchen Brown.
