Charles Apple

Is it just me, or has e-mail spam from art and photo agencies increased tremendously over the past few months?Without any basis for backing this up, here is my guess: Advertisers and editorial publishers have cut back their budgets to the point where they’re not buying as much art as they used to. Therefore, stock photo outfits and art agents are trying harder to find new ways to sell their clients’ work.

It’s just a guess. But it sure smells right, doesn’t it?

I decided to take an inventory of every piece of unsolicited e-mail that comes to my work e-mail account last week. It turned out to not be quite as big a week for spam as some.

And this is just what makes it through the company spam filter!

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MONDAY

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8:32 a.m.: The week begins with spam from the National Gallery.

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2:05 P.M.: It’s our first photo agency spam of the week.

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2:49 p.m.: We get the only spam of the week that doesn’t include embedded images. Bless their hearts. It’s from Comstock.

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TUESDAY

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2:24 a.m.: We’re solicited by pictures from Australia. Is Norfolk a hot market for pictures from Australia? Just wondering.

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3:55 a.m.: Spam from a free-lance artist.

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10:26 a.m.: More illustration spam. This guy is really good. More of an advertising bent than editorial, though.

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1:08 p.m.: Just what the world needs: Another stock photo agency.

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2 p.m.: The only one we enjoyed so for this week: A photog advertising his work whith a gorgeous shot of a train.

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2:10 p.m.: Does this photographer know we’re going to Vegas this fall? Or is this just a coincidence?

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2:41 p.m.: Not Britain’s most extensive library. Nor is it Britain’s most-respected stock collection.

It’s Britain’s coolest image library.

I’m so glad they cleared that up…

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3:34 p.m.: Another illustrator. I’ll keep them in mind the next time I need art of elves and fairies.

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7:05 p.m.: A truly fine illustrator. But he chose to send me a PDF slideshow that ate up more than 6 megabytes of my e-mail basket, filling it up and shutting me down overnight. Putz.

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WEDNESDAY

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7:14 a.m. This photog is very clever. She puts a subject line like “Bathing beauty” on an e-mail containing this art. You can’t help but be charmed… as you trash it.

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9:55 a.m.: What bothers me is that this guy’s agent is selling his work as an “infographic.”

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11:14 a.m.: Another illustration agency. Apparently, Tuesday is photography day and Wednesday is illustrator day. I’m glad the spammers of the world have divvied us up like that.

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11:29 a.m.: An outfit in Nashville wants to teach me how to use Adobe’s Creative Suite.

No offense, guys, but I began using Photoshop 18 years ago and I switched my preferred vector-drawing app from Freehand to Illustrator in 14 years ago. So don’t call me; I’ll call you. OK?

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12:15 p.m.: I really, really like this art, so I kind of hate to pick on the artist. But again, it’s filling up my in-basket. So into the blog it goes.

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12:40 p.m.: It’s been a whole 71 minutes since they last spammed me. So those panicky Nashville cats ping me again:

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3:23 p.m.: You have to love this one. See the little “Send this to a friend” button at the upper right? “Hey, we’re spamming the entire visual communication field. But if we happen to miss anyone, would you mind doing some marketing work for us? For free?”

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THURSDAY

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10:02 a.m.: I’m out sick Thursday, but my e-mail basket doesn’t fill up this time. Which means I return Friday to find gems like this.

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2:05 p.m.: Is this one supposed to be funny? I don’t get it. Until I realize: No, this is not the Onion…

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7:11 p.m.: Here’s another art style I like a lot. So I hate to pick on the guy. But spam is spam…

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FRIDAY

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9:52 a.m.: Friday kicks off with more illustrator spam. However, I love this guy’s minimalist approach. Sending me only the links adds to my mailbox clutter but reduces the bulk. So he gets my vote for most polite spammer of the week.

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11:20 a.m.: Oooh, these guys are sneaky. Their solicitation takes the form of a survey. Noooo, we don’t want to sell you anything. We only want your opinion. Yeah, right. And to sweeten the pot, they’re giving me a chance to win a Wii.

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1:02 p.m.: Sending photos of food around lunchtime could be considered a dirty trick. I could have sworn I received spam from this guy earlier this week, but apparently not. Apparently, they’re all starting to look the same, though.

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2:25 p.m.: My final piece of spam for the week shows a woman with rocks on her back. Sorry, but I think there is a Photodisc CD specifically for women with rocks on their backs…

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And that was it for last week.

But who knows what the e-mail Gods will bring this week?

I can hardly wait…

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 8:29 am and is filed under Amusing stuff, Charles Apple, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.