the uncreative industry

In my last post, I spoke a little about email spam. One other thing that I have noticed about email marketers is that, on the whole, they are the least creative people I think I have seen in my life. Rather than come up with any ideas of their own, they simply regurgitate whatever they've seen from their competitors. The sales copy always looks the same. The same catch phrases that are used to sell get-rich-quick moneymaking schemes and bogus college degrees are also used to sell a diet pill. What gives?

I understand the concept behind "shotgun" marketing - that if you spray your message in a wide enough pattern, you're bound to hit something (or somebody). But even if you could get someone to actually read that spammy message, or god forbid actually open their crummy virus-infected attachment, do these marketers actually think that they're misspelled cookie-cutter copy is actually going to lead to conversions?