Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 58

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Popular Culture Review

The implications of this type of on-line shopping for consumers are also
explored. Beginning with the use of e-mail to lure customers to the virtual
marketplace, Martha Stewart’s on-line marketing is based on the illusion of a friend
giving advice about products needed to ensure a “matchless” home. The
ramifications of this illusion of friendship for our understanding of the nexus of
interpersonal and mediated communication are also discussed.

E-mail as an Entree to Web site

E-mail users check their e-mail. It might include messages sent by a publisher’s
sale