An interesting story trickled out in today’s New York Times about AT&T using less-than-responsible mobile messaging tactics in a recent American Idol campaign.

AT&T sent the promotional message to a “significant number” of its subscribers but did not seem to apply traditional opt-in practices to this campaign. Apparently, their standards of what constitutes spam is different from what email marketers consider it to be, with their corporate spokesman going so far as to assert that “it couldn’t be more open and transparent.”

Mr. Siegel said the message went to subscribers who had voted for “Idol” singers in the past, and other “heavy texters.” He said the message could not be classified as spam because it was free and because it allowed people to decline future missives.

First of all, what exactly is a “heavy texter?” That sounds like some sort of text messaging addict who needs a 12-step treatment program. And second, how can you blindly justify sending these people communications as if they’d opted-in?

While I’m not a compliance expert, I would guess that AT&T could have saved themselves a boatload of trouble by sending the message only to previous Idol texters, and then phrasing their message as a request to opt-in more than a straight advertisement. If I was running the show over there, my 160 characters would have gone something like this: “American Idol is back! Calling all past Idol voters: visit us online at (web address) to find out more. Would you like to receive future messages from us? Opt-in at (short code) or ignore this message to be removed.” 

That would have been rather easy, no?

Tags: AT&T, mobile, spam

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