The direct marketing industry was put very much on the defensive Wednesday at a Federal Trade Commission forum on spam at which Direct Marketing Association president Bob Wientzen was booed.
The audience reaction occurred during an early morning question-and-answer format to a panel of industry representatives from a number of areas.
Wientzen pointed out that a yet-to-be-released DMA study found that 35% of consumers bought something when they were contacted by e-mail. But he was challenged by Laura Atkins, president of the SpamCon Foundation.
“The majority of the people who are buying are not buying based on unsolicited commercial e-mail and to lump the solicited and unsolicited e-mail together is confusing the issue,” she said.
“There wouldn
Network
