Brighton spam picnic - the inside story

On Monday of this week, Mi Elfverson from True North Vision somehow ended up on an email list along with 474 other businesses. Her story below really highlights how one little mistake can escalate but also, the power of connecting and the supportive nature of doing business in Brighton…

This morning I got a friendly e-mail from a local web designer introducing his services. It was all ok; it was just that he had cc’d 474 other local businesses (including other web designers). I was a both baffled and amused; here was this annoying person who didn´t know common etiquette, but on the other hand, he was handing us 474 local businesses on a silver plate!

Soon enough a person had written the first angry, actually rather rude and intimidating, response. A couple of more bashes followed, but then some more supportive people stepped in: “Don´t worry Mike, it´s ok, we´ve all done it, we´ve all been beginners.”

Ok, so that´s fine, but can we all please go back to work now, good people. Let´s put this behind us and move on.

But more and more responses from the 474 business people around the block came rolling in, obviously to my mixed despair and surprise, finding an excuse to present their business in a very simple way: “You´re ok Mike, don´t worry, and by the way, if you need a carpet cleaner...”

Some people started getting irritated with the opportunistic traitors who didn´t just shut up and leave poor Mike to be punished in silence. Someone posted "...and I´ve got a surfboard for sale" let´s make this really stupid, "I´ve got a cast iron gate for sale", “I´m looking for a new road bike” and then an image of big shark wanting in.

Then people changed the strategy and started giving a discount to everyone in the thread. 10%, 20%, 30% off their services. Printing, dental work, window cleaning...

This was turning into a real spam party. My mailbox was slowly filling up, the avalanche was unstoppable. I just want to shout STOP, but then I would just be one of them... A spammer!

By 11.30am the friendly business introductions had turned more personal and people were asking if Mike shouldn´t actually be hired. We quite like this bloke. Look what he´s managed to create - have you ever seen anything like it? Let´s meet up for a chat. How about we all meet up instead? We all live in Brighton! Yeah, come on, let´s turn this into something positive instead!

By noon there was a plan cooking. Let´s find a place where we all can hang out. Why don´t we have a spam picnic on the beach? And by mid afternoon there was The Brighton Spam Picnic page on Facebook.

This is quite something you know. Mike has certainly learnt something. That a beginner´s mistake can turn into something rather extraordinary. Look how much we need each other. Now let´s be friends and party! Only in Brighton...

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