Recently, I became a subscriber for Entertainment Weekly and as any good marketer should do, they asked for my email address when I created an online subscriber profile.

This was several weeks ago, but the other day I got the email that you see here: a simple informative piece explaining how I get the opportunity to see advance screenings as a subscriber. Great! But that’s also where things got a bit, well, classic?

If you’ll notice the movie poster used in the email seen here, it’s Rush Hour 3. In the copy, Rush Hour 3, Shrek The Third and Dreamgirls are referenced as those films that subscribers got to see before they were released to the masses.

As I write this, it’s March 2010. Rush Hour 3 came out in August 2007. Shrek The Third? May 2007. Dreamgirls was released in December 2006! I don’t know about you, but I can name a few movies that have been released since 2007.

Essentially, this is an abandoned autoresponder/trigger- something set up years ago but has been left on the side of the road like an old car.

So now I’m wondering if this program still exists. Are they even aware these are going out and if so, are they totally fine with dated references in their emails? I would assume they wouldn’t be, but I’m not sure. (I can’t wait to have the inside track on Star Trek, which came out a year or so ago.)

Think about your autoresponders and triggers. Do they have time-sensitive information in there? If so, how often do you update that information and what’s your system of checks and balances to ensure you don’t forget?

Josh Nason is the Inbound Marketing Director for SendLabs, a New England-based email marketing software company with great customers across the street and around the globe. Follow him at @joshnason and @sendlabs.