Of Spam and French Champagne...
by Damian Burke
A little while ago, a certain QuirkStar (who will remain nameless) forwarded a chain letter to me with fantastic promises of a free case of French champagne within 15 days if I forwarded it to 10 friends along with a copy to “the source”. The supposed source being the director of education and hospitality services at Spier, sent out in an attempt to “build up their database”.
After flinging my verbose response back to the QuirkStar for propagating spam in my direction (“taking the chance” is no excuse), I remembered that one of my mates works at Spier. So I rang him up and we shared a laugh. Apparently the chain letter has caused quite a stir, and the Stellenbosch winemakers receive numerous calls every week from angered plonkers (by plonkers I mean wine enthusiast, obviously) demanding their bubbly.
In an attempt to shake off the false promises, Spier went on the front foot and sent out a press release stating that 'Spier has absolutely nothing to do with this hoax'. They also sent out emails dispelling the myth – but their letterheads and contact details were lifted from the email and only made the chain letter seem more official.
Eight years since it first reared its head, the email is still going strong and only increasing in circulation. Just proof that Email Marketing does work, like it or lump it – and perhaps they should collect the addresses for their database. After all, the users did agree to inclusion ;-)
And for the record; Spier's winemakers have not yet mastered the art of creating French champagne.
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Spier should embrace the hoax, telling people who contact them that it is nonsense, but at the same time sending a random caller the odd free bottle of wine (think Stormhoek). From then on, its almost guaranteed that every time the wine-recipient sees a restaurant winelist or looks at the supermarket shelf, the word Spier will appeal like no other.
Posted by Shaun Dewberry on 2007/12/03