Orange Crayon

Fun

Subject: Canadian Citizenship Can Be Yours!
From: citizenship_offer@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, Mar 23, 2000, 5:32 PM

Dear ____,

If you are an American citizen with no felony convictions and not
currently serving in the armed forces, then you are eligible for this
special offer from the Commonwealth of Canada.

Due to deregulation of the citizenship industry under a provision of
NAFTA, all North Americans are now free to choose their own
citizenship providers.  We think you'll agree that switching now to
Canadian citizenship is a great deal, both for you and for your family.

As you have probably heard on our commercials on TV, Canada offers:

   - free National Health Care - if you live within 100 miles of
     Canada, as a citizen you would be eligible for two free major
     surgeries,
   - the best English-speaking comedians and musicians, including
     Mike Myers and Celine Dion
   - a family-friendly atmosphere, including the best children's
     television programs on the continent,
   - easy access to Alaska and the Arctic Circle,
   - and, if you choose the Quebec option on your Canadian Citizenship
     application, your children can be educated in both French and 
     English.

So please consider switching to Canadian citizenship. For more
information, just reply to this email, or dial 1-888-O-Canada. Visit
our web site at http://www.canada.com -- and we'll be seeing you, eh?

Act now, and receive your free Northern Lights celebrity soundtrack.

                Canada -- it's not just another state!

Offer good until April 1, 2000.

All right, for April Fool's Day this year, we thought of a hilarious ruse about NAFTA and the deregulation of citizenship. We immediately sent it to a Canadian friend, who deleted it without reading it. We sent it to Bill's sister Zivar, who at first thought we would have the INS knocking on our door pretty soon (she changed her mind after getting a little sleep -- two children under the age of three can make even the most down-to-earth organic vegetable farmer a little edgy).


What do you think -- would you delete this delightfully comic email because its subject line was irrelevant to your immediate concerns, or would you read it and find it amusing? Or would you think it was too weird to be funny?


Eventually, when we sent it to about a dozen people, maybe two or three read it and found it funny. The rest either dismissed it as weird or deleted it immediately, barely remembering that they had even received it. And we thought we could write a catchy subject line. The internet is a harsh editor.