Flash, (and JavaScript, ActiveX, movies, and other stuff

You can deliver HTML emails with Flash in them, but most recipients won’t be able to
view them. Not unless they’re using an email program that uses a browser to render
their HTML email. Microsoft Outlook was a program that used Internet Explorer to
render HTML email, so Flash would sometimes work there. But Microsoft Outlook 2007
is no longer going to use IE to render email. They’re using Microsoft Word instead, so
Flash is not going to work there anymore. Anyways, most anti-virus applications block
the code used to embed Flash movies, and they block JavaScript, ActiveX, and even
background music files. All that stuff has been used in the past to spread viruses, so it’s
commonly blocked now.
Point emails to landing pages
If you’ve got a great animation or movie to show to your recipients, just send a simple,
intriguing GIF or JPEG graphic in your HTML email, then link it to a “landing page” on
your website with the animation in it. Same goes for JavaScript, ActiveX, and movie files.
Anti-virus applications block them from running. So fancy rollover or pop-up navigation
and streaming videos just aren’t going to work either. The only email application on our
test machines that will actually play fancy stuff (like Flash and movies) seems to be
Outlook 2000 (which is kind of old, these days). Unless you know for a fact that every
single one of your recipients uses Outlook 2000, and you know their anti-virus
applications won’t block your stuff from running, don’t send Flash, JavaScript, ActiveX,
or movies in HTML email. Just won’t work reliably.