I'm signed up to an embarrasing number of marketing emails.

Over the last few years, I've noticed a trend. I'll get an email, then a followup email a few hours later apologising for a mistake in the first email (eg a broken link, a broken discount code, the first email should have gone out to certain customers instead of everyone on the mailing list, etc).

Now, Hanlon's razor and all that; but am I weird for suspecting that these mistakes are often on purpose?

I feel like it happens way too frequently; I'd say I get at least two or three 'mistake' emails a week.

And if I was trying to get people's attention, being able to send two emails in (relatively) quick succession (instead of just one email) seems like a good way to do it.

Not to mention how the apology email might make a more emotional impression on recipients than the first email alone would; whether it's the schadenfreude of seeing a famous brand screw up, or how the mistake might seem to humanise the brand in the reader's eyes.

If you're an email marketer, can you confirm or vilify my crackpot theory?