Amazon has joined the (soft) p*** brigade. I was not impressed to receive this email from them today (from which I have removed the product links):
Dear Amazon.co.uk Customer,
Valentines Day is nearly here, and as a previous sex and sensuality or erotica customer, we thought that you might like to know about our more adventurous gifts for Valentines Day...treat the one you love...or even yourself or browse the rest of the Sex and Sensuality range in our online store.
Order today and start saving:
++ Adult Toys
++ Adult Sex Games
++ Erotic DVD
++ Up to 40% Off Erotica Books
Happy shopping
Brian McBride
Managing Director
Amazon.co.uk
I wouldn't complain if I was in fact "a previous sex and sensuality or erotica customer", but I am not. Just as well I am not a sensitive little old lady or a Church of England vicar, though.
I am a sensitive little old man, and if I had a £5 note for every viagra spam email I have received over the past year I would be able to afford a villa in Tuscany.
Posted by: Norm alias Uriah Robinson | 29 January 2007 at 22:36
The way Amazon keeps track of every single item you buy gets on my nerves. Back when I was teaching, I bought one book that I had to have for some professional development thing the school made me attend. From that point forward, I received about a thousand e-mails about other education titles I had no interest in purchasing. Thankfully, you can manage your recommendations by turning off certain items.
It's one thing to use customer purchases to generate customized content for the main Amazon page. But those e-mails are nothing but spam.
Posted by: marydell | 30 January 2007 at 00:28
Before you draw yourself up in high dudgeon, are you sure you've never bought a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover through Amazon?
Peter
========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder And Erotica Are More Safely Enjoyed Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Peter | 30 January 2007 at 06:31
Well, as a nearly little old lady married to a theologian, I would just laugh it off - or have a good look!
Posted by: Lee | 30 January 2007 at 07:14
Thanks for the tip, Marydell, I will see if I can turn off "porn" because I do like getting emails about books I might actually want to read. Know what you mean about the hounding, though -- One year I bought and had mailed my stepdaughter's textbooks for her business studies degree via Amazon (the ones she couldn't get in her local shops) -- you can just imagine the opportunities I've been offered to take over the world since! But at least that was because I did buy some books on the topic.
No, I haven't bought LCL from Amazon, Peter, though I did buy The Go Between a while back among others on Cathy's GCSE reading list. However, the GB is a pretty repressed portrayal of lust from what I remember of it, and what's more does not have that helpful hint (the word "lover" in the title) for the Amazon computer program to pick up.
Posted by: Maxine | 30 January 2007 at 09:06