I’m sounding harsh because I teach these same programs and work hard to instill high ethical values in my students by teaching copyright law and protection, and how to rise above bad marketing techniques disguised as “guerrilla marketing”.

Thanks for helping me understand and I’d love feedback on the results.

I also recommend you add to your required reading How NOT to Comment on Comments and Comments on Comments.

I think I know the source of the problem that you are seeing from World Vital Records. Paul Allen (founder of MyFamily and Ansestry.com) teaches an internet marketing class at Brigham Young University. I know because I am one of his students. Paul convinced World Vital Records to give us a chance to run a marketing campaign. The class was split into groups of three students. Each group was given $100 dollars and the resources to create a landing page and try and get people to sign up for their free newsletter and other free stuff.

A portion of our grade is determined by how well we run our campaigns. But, let me make it very clear that Paul and World Vital Records are not the ones “spamming” you. It is just a bunch of marketing students trying to figure out how to get more traffic to their landing pages (With multiple teams you probably got a comment from several different teams). It will be over in a week when finals are over–if not sooner because I am sure that Paul will mention your blog entry in Thursday’s class and he will give us a lesson on guerrilla marketing without crossing over ethical lines. Overall I think the campaigns have been successful, but some of us have gotten a little competitive desiring to be the best in the class. I would like to apologize for the class and thank you for understanding that this was not World Vital Records fault. Paul Allen has mentored some very successful Internet marketers and I am sure that you understand the risks that he takes on when he runs a project like this with a bunch of University students.