So I was having lunch with an entrepreneur that I respect recently.  We started talking about email marketing.  The conversation went something like this.

Entrepreneur:  How do you feel about email marketing.

Lance:  What do you mean?

E:  Sending out emails.

L:  Did they opt in to receive emails specifically from your company?

E: No.

L:  Did they indicate in some way that they would be interested in receiving emails from your company?

E: No.

L:  How did you get their names?

E:  Purchased well targeted lists that have shown an interest in our category.

L:  That is unsolicited email.  It's spam.

E:  Some marketing guy told me it was ok if it was well targeted.

L:  It's spam.  Don't do it.

Now I am surely not pure but if someone has not given you permission to send them an email, like double opt-in permission, don't do it.  It is unsolicited email.  It's spam. 

My background working for an ISP and an email security may bias me quite a bit.

But if you ask me, I call that spam.