Last week Willamette University spammed the mailboxes of hundreds of lawyers as it advertised an upcoming continuing legal education program. The announcement itself wasn't so bad; the problem was that Willamette sent to a mailing list it had created, leaving the listserv address in the "TO" field, so every lawyer who responded with "unsubscribe" or harsher words sent his or her message to the hundreds of other involuntary participants. These were followed up with several dozen admonitions not to hit "Reply to All," which also went to everyone on the list.
Willamette got the message. Here's what it sent to the lawyers on its list, this time by USPS and not e-mail. The other side of the card offers a $20 discount on the admission price to the event itself.