Elections

#ImNotKiddingMaddi: Read My Article Now

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America’s grandma is at it again. And like most of our grandmas, she also doesn’t know how to effectively communicate over email.

It seems she has found herself in a bit of a conundrum yet again.

A woman named Maddi has taken the Internet by storm this week after posting an aggressive, yet intimate email she claims she was sent by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The email said,

After tonight’s results roll in, keep this in mind: most of the country casts their primary ballots by the middle of March. We absolutely, critically need to make sure Hillary comes out on top in the states that lie ahead.

Okay, so not too bad. Not too aggressive…yet. And then,

I’m not kidding, Maddi, I’m asking you to give $1 right this second. Can you chip in?

Well that just went from 0 to 100 real quick.

Her strange language resonated with a lot of people, but in some weird ways. Here are some of my favorite reactions:

While this example may sound a bit extreme, NPR explains that email strategies like this can actually be effective because they speak to readers in a more conversational way, but at some points that can almost seem too human.

NPR cites an example from the (now suspended) Rand Paul campaign. A Rand Paul supporter, Mark English, received a strange email saying:

Subject: Fw: Please reach out to Mark.

Mark, are you ok? Rand asked me to reach out to you.

Kind of awkward. As if Mark wasn’t confused and or annoyed enough already, when he scrolled down through the email chain and saw this “previously sent” email:

Alexandra,

Please do me a quick favor and contact Mark English.

I’ve emailed Mark multiple times this past week about my TV and Radio Ad Blitz in Iowa and still haven’t heard back yet.

So what are the most effective emails tactics used by the Clinton campaign? According to Return Path, an email marketing firm cited by NPR, four out of the five most-read emails sent out in November had the subject line “dinner!”

As someone who receives Clinton’s odd fundraising emails, I can concur that often they can make me feel slightly uneasy. But throughout all of this, I really have to wonder, did Maddi give Hillary the dollar?

Julia Bryant
Julia Bryant
Julia Bryant is an Editorial Senior Fellow at Law Street from Howard County, Maryland. She is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Economics. You can contact Julia at JBryant@LawStreetMedia.com.
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