[just_bytecode]

By this definition John sending an unexpected party invitation to his friend Dave is spam.

edit: I guess spam is by definition commercial email. Still, I think it's possible to have a business relationship with a company where it's acceptable for them to send an occasional email that you didn't specifically request.

[awda]

Business relationships are different from personal relationships, and "solicit," in this case, does not mean literally request the email. It is perfectly reasonably to describe unexpected email from a friend as solicited and unexpected product email from a business as unsolicited (even if you've had contact with them previously).

It is unlikely that the business is your friend ;-).

[thenewbtg]

Personally, there are a select few brands from whom I enjoy reading unsolicited emails.

They have proven themselves to me and I like them on an irrationally human level.

What bothers me, however, is when the other 99.9% of the brands I interact with automatically assume that they are the 0.1%.

Yes, it's possible and acceptable to have that kind of relationship between a client/business, but the problem becomes when a brand believes that they can control that relationship, or define it themselves, or simply assume that it exists.

[mgkimsal]

"I guess spam is by definition commercial email"

That's only some definitions. There are more hardcore people who'd view anything they didn't explicitly request as 'spam', just some of it originating from people they know vs companies they know.