SPAM. What is a "legitimate pitch"?

[Almighty Colin]

Old story but ... what the hell is a "legitimate pitch" in contrast with spam?

Internet advertising revenues jump 40 percent

NEW YORK (AP) — Internet advertising revenues jumped 40% in the first half of this year, driven largely by the growing popularity of keyword ads tied to search results.

U.S. revenues for the first six months were $4.6 billion, compared with $3.3 billion for the same period in 2003, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study conducted for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Search made up 40% of the ad revenues in the second quarter of 2004, compared with 29% in the year-ago period.

"Not surprisingly, search continues its popularity and (has) been embraced by advertisers due to its innate relevancy, the simplicity of the results and because advertisers can determine more precise response rates," said Pete Petrusky, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers's New Media Group.

Ad revenues from e-mail marketing dropped 29% in the second quarter to $47 million as many Internet users equated legitimate pitches with spam. The figure includes ads within e-mail newsletters, e-mail marketing campaigns and other commercial e-mail communications from legitimate businesses.