EXOD476 Can I advertise my product through mass mailing? Q: My firm provides a unique product that could be of interest to many individuals. Someone has offered to make a pitch through a "spam" mailing to millions of individuals. A: In principle, Jewish tradition does not frown on promotion. It is legitimate for a seller to try and make his product known to potential buyers, and to inform them of the benefits of his wares. For example, the Mishnah states that a store owner is allowed to give free gifts to buyers in order to induce them to come to his store. [Mishnah, end of fourth chapter of Bava Metziah]. And our ancient sages took special steps to encourage door-to-door salesman who sold important products, such as cosmetics, which were not available in stores Bava Batra 22a. However, we must take care that selling doesn't turn into harassment. We can learn this principle from two laws of commerce that relate to buyers, and apply them to sellers as well. The Mishnah states that a buyer shouldn't waste the time of a seller by feigning interest in a purchase [Mishnah, end of fourth chapter of Bava Metziah]. This is considered a violation of the Torah prohibition of causing gratuitous torment to others. The seller devotes his energy to the customer believing he is being given a fair chance to make a sale; if in fact the "customer" has no interest, then the seller is being imposed upon. The customer should take the time of the seller only if he has some minimal interest in buying. By the same token, a seller shouldn't waste the customer's time by an offering when there is no particular basis for thinking that the customer might be interested. There should be some rational basis for assuming that the email (or junk mail) recipients may have some interest in your product or service. Otherwise, you are imposing on the recipient. There is another, complementary law which provides a complementary insight. One of the Ten Commandments is "Don't covet" what belongs to our neighbor [this verse]. But we must admit that giving a hard and fast definition of "coveting" is not so easy. Our desire tells us that the redline is definitely crossed when our desire is so great that we try to convince the owner to sell us a personal possession that he really has no interest in parting with. [Mechilta on this verse]. Such uninvited approaches are again really just a form of harassment. This law, too, can be extrapolated from buyer to seller. Someone who tries to convince someone to buy a product that he has shown no interest in acquiring is engaging in exactly the same kind of harassment [Rabbi Yaakov Bloi, Pitchei Hoshen Geneiva 30 note 26]. This is completely different from a salesperson trying to persuade a customer who has intentionally come into the store or has agreed to listen to a sales person's pitch. It's hard to provide a clear definition of when targeted marketing turns into spam. But the two sources from Jewish law can help provide some context. In both cases, the criteria on what makes the approach permissible is not a desire to make a deal per se but rather the existence of a basic interest. A customer who has some interest in making a purchase is not wasting the salesperson's time, and a person who has expressed even a possible interest in selling his property may be approached by someone with an interesting offer. By the same token, a recipient considers an email to be "spam" not because he doesn't want to buy the product but rather because he is not interested in even learning about the product. It's not only a waste of this time to read the message; it's even a waste of time to go to the trouble of deleting it. Based on this criterion, a mass mailing would be problematic if it is for something that relatively few people are interested in learning about and no efforts are made to target specifically those individuals who would express interest. It goes without saying that the mailings should not violate the law. Very often middlemen of the kind you mention use illegal techniques to evade anti-spam efforts of Internet service providers. For example, if they use a false return address. When you use the services of such an agent, Jewish law views you as an accomplice to the crime. Targeted mailings, when carried out in a legal fashion, are a legitimate selling technique according to the principles of Judaism. But these mailings turn into unethical harassment when no effort is made to target individuals who would be expected to have some interest in learning about your produce, or if the message is misleading.