I think people are going around telling each other -- quite falsely -- that if the message doesn't explicitly announce things for sale, it's not an advertisement and therefore not a violation.
A few weeks ago, a jeweler in my town used an autodialer to invite people for a free ring cleaning. He told me it wasn't an advertisement but an invitation. Worse, he made no attempt to avoid dialing hospitals, fire stations, large PBXes, etc. ... my first encounter with it was when my secretary got about 8 copies of the message via other phones rolling over to hers.
I don't know, but I suspect someone is aggressively selling autodialers by telling people falsehoods about the law.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What may be a bit more tricky, IMO is when the purported message is to 'wish happy holidays' as our original writer noted. When such a message is conveyed, is it still in fact a 'sales call' or an advertising pitch? PAT]