How ethical are Emails with misleading (but highly impactful) subject lines?

I have recently seen emails with urgent subject lines like "Mail Failure Notification", "63 Viruses Found". When you open them (half tensed), they are emails advertising a product or service. Is this Ethical Email Marketing?

 

No. It's called "bait and switch" and is spam. Most ISPs will close down those accounts.

 

It's very, very far from ethical. It's against most companies' terms of service and even illegal in many countries.
Moreover, the users themselves hate these emails and will delete them as soon as they open them - what's the point if sending them in the first place if the conversion will be 0?

Emails with these titles are mostly used for installing malware.

Don't do it - think of some good titles that at least have anything to do with what you're advertising...

 

The examples you posted are underhanded and meant to deceive with ill intention, but when done in a playful or amusing manner it can be okay. There's a fine line so be conservative when starting out with creative email subjects.

 

Highly unethical and a stupid move on your part because get the person will unsub from your list

 

Thank god someone said that! As a copywriter, that space for creative subjects would definitely be a welcome.

 

Not on "my part" yeah i do create subject lines but on the above two examples, i was at the receiving end

 

These emails go automatically to my spam folder. I didn't even know I was receiving such emails!

 

hehe... you are lucky then. Most of them do end up in my spam box too. But then, there are always some that slip through.