Nearly all the companies that generate these letters go off-key or hit a wrong note.
Many years ago, I received an invitation signed by “Patrick J. Buchanan” to donate or subscribe (I forget which) for the new magazine “The American Conservative”. The letter actually ended, saying that if I give them money, I would be “his special friend”. It was awful, and was not something PJB would write.
I did subscribe to the magazine for a while (NOT in response to that solicitation) and the advertisements were talking about celebrating “The Holidays” and “Holidays” this and “Holidays” that. SOMEBODY didn’t know his audience. I talked to someone close to the operation and he admitted there was a mess up.
So, while there is no shortage of things to hang on Mrs. Clinton, I would consider a cloying, misdirected e-mail with false personalization to be a venial violation at worst.
Having been a part of political direct mail in the past, I’d say they just didn’t bring their best because Democrats had a terrible reputation for not paying their bills, still do. A good direct response sales letter writer was and is something of a rare bird, commanding a pretty penny and worth every one of them in increased response and contribution. Their skills are just as pertinent online as they are or were in print. A direct mailing is a very intricate, expensive thing to have fall flat because somebody didn’t “get” tone and didn’t grasp the target audience. That’s why such mailings are usually tested and tested again, constantly with the A/B splits. Every mailing I ever had a hand in had a test grid of up to 16 version splits. Failing to do this and then making the winner of testing your “control” mailing is a recipe for an expensive disaster. Even then, you’ve got to continue with the constant testing. The house list doesn’t sit still, let alone rented prospect lists. What worked last year might not work this year, and what worked five years ago is even less likely to work this year.