MailChimp: Sending mergetags to campaign over API
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I'm using the MailChimp PHP API and oAuth2 to connect to MailChimp and create a campaign. Everything is peachy except for my mergetags that I have to put inside an <a href>. For example,

    <a href="*|FORWARD|*">forward</a>

becomes

    <a href="/*|FORWARD|*">forward</a>

when it gets to MailChimp.
Then, when emailed it strips the whole thing out.

    <a>forward</a>

I've messed around with a few things but nothing seems to effect it. I don't know if it's me, if it's mailchimp, or what.