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Mortification potential: high

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Yes, you too can DateLance.com! Whew, good thing I am not "down with the 'big family thing'". You can read commentary from Monsterblog here. My personal take:

1) If it's viral advertising, I think hawking your employee's romantic life is bit gross and invasive.

2) If it's truly to find Lance a date, I can't believe they didn't ask him first and then why the corporate logo and bios of co-workers?

Worst part, Lance's co-workers seem to think that single people require intervention. Yes, there's clearly something *wrong* because Lance is single (read their comments). Their CEO says: "I knew the first time I met with Lance that I wanted to hire him, but that he'd be the only person on our marketing team without a significant other." Uh, excuse me....who cares? And also, are you kidding me?  What does that have to do with hiring for the job? 

I gotta say, I am not offended by much, but they got me. Maybe, I'm feeling a little sensitive today (it's possible...I've been incredibly busy), but I'm still not buying whatever they are selling.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    Heather,

    This is pretty far out there for sure. It gets wierder, I think, the more you actually consider what they say.

    Take your quote from the CEO - so he's saying that the very first time he met with Lance he immediately found out he was single. How? Is it on Lance's resume or something? I'm guessing not, so it must have "come up in the conversation." Why on earth would something like that come up in the very first conversation with a prospective hire? If someone were to ask me up front about my marital status as if it was something that mattered to whether I was going to get hired/be a success, I would be running for the hills.

    I wonder what happens when they find someone for Lance - do his co-workers have a say in whether he dates them/marries them or not????

    Mark
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    What an interesting concept. Before you become too offended dear Heather, realize that this is a demographic/regional scenario. This company is based in Utah. Lance obviously hails from that region's religious population. Marriage is usually strongly encouraged after return from the mission at 21 years old, so Lance is a bit late it seems. He obviously took the education route. When I return back to the home land, the very first question I get rather than 'how are you' is where is your wife? Are you married? Most folks aren't prepared for my answer, but that is and entirely different post. This website makes complete sense to me as I am from that area. Having worked in SLC in a previous life --- church/personal life/work lines are very often blurred, something we don't see as often out here in this area.
    my two cents.
    p
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    Mark-good questions. Perhaps they want us to return to the site and see the outcome (cue dramatic cliffhanger music).

    Pat-you know I'm not going to debate the rights and wrongs of religions here ; ) But that doesn't change how I feel about what I saw, regardless of any religious implications. The choice to put this info up as a website guaranteed viewing by a "broader" audience than the local community (which is part of why I think it's a marketing tactic). It's that "know your readers" thing. I try to keep in mind that my readers could be of any or no religion and try not to say anything that would offend their religious beliefs.
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    TMS-I think that even makes me feel worse. because on top of all that concerned me, now it's associated with my profession. Ugh. Thanks for the link
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    Oh, honestly, everything in advertising is about attention.

    They want attention, they do something funky.

    They got your attention, you even drew more attention to it by posting it in your blog: they won.
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    Ewwww.

    Actually, that pretty much sums it up - Ewww.

    As a single Marketing Director type with no "significant other", I'm rendered vaguely nauseous.
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    RE the CEO's comments: "I knew the first time I met with Lance that I wanted to hire him, but that he'd be the only person on our marketing team without a significant other."

    Wow. Sounds like someone needs a little retraining from HR about even <u>discussing</u> a candidate's marital status. Or significant other status.

    But then again, I'm with AdRants, it's a fake.
  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    July 31, 2005
    I think the nail in the coffin for this site being some miguided recruiting attempt comes from the FAQ page:

    "LogoWorks is a fun place. We'll do just about anything to make our employees truly happy!"

    Personally I think everyone is taking the campaign a little too seriously. (for example I think the disputed quotes are most likely false, and constructed specifically for this site) As in patBlue's case i'm local to the area in question so I probably have somewhat of a unique understanding of the area's dynamics. I don't agree in the least with launching a recruiting campaign of this type without express permission of the person being spotlighted. Granted this campaign was probably not engineered very well, or perhaps even thought through to logical conclusion (or perhaps it was), it wouldn't be the first time that a company pushed out commercials or marketing materials of a questionable nature (something released by microsoft some time back involving lingere and Microsoft Office) comes to mind. So perhaps it's best to take the advertising for what it is, a gimick. And if everyone pays a bunch of attention to it, then it's done exactly what it was designed to do.
  • Anonymous
    July 31, 2005
    Ingenious in getting eyeballs. Loaded with HR violations! I'm 99% sure it's fake too but 1) still gross and 2) containing lots of stuff that could get them in trouble. So, overall, I'm not buying into the conclusion that they are "smart" for doing this.
  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2005
    Hi Heather,
    IMHO, here's an example of a GREAT online marketing campaign... funny, relevant - sure to create a buzz

    http://www.landed.fm/shows/gautam.html
  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2005
    From my perspective this campaign has almost nothing to do with Dating Lance. They chose something specifically that would be controversial to drive traffic, get recruitment, and get everyone to see the imagery. How many thousands of people have now seen the LogoWorks logo and have had it permanently branded into their brain?

    Being single myself, I find this route of advertising definately something I wouldn't be willing to do. There are specifically some things that should not be for sale and honestly my dating life should not be used for corporate goodness. In the same regard to some of the reality TV shows, I would think that almost any relationship started for such reasons would surely have increased chances of failing. (Maybe it's the hopeless romantic in me?)
  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2005
    One thing though...I assume the point of the campaign (if it's indeed a recruiting campaign, which I belive it is) is to get people hired, not just drive traffic to the site. So traffic from people that are grossed out by the site isn't really going to help them. It's kind of like what I was talking about with target audience. Eyeballs are good, the right eyeballs are best.