In the online world there are fewer more competitive sectors that the dating sector, with millions of dating websites, all competing for the subscription fees of members. Since the Internet was first created, lonely hearts have looked online to find love, and found a wealth of websites ready to take their money, in exchange for offering them potential matches in their area.
Because of the competitiveness however, dating websites need two things to be successful: They need a niche, and they need a large SEO budget. Anyone looking to launch a dating website that offers just normal dating wouldn’t stand much of a chance. They need an angle in order to break into the marketplace. An angle such as senior’s dating, dating for athletes, college dating – or perhaps dating for married people looking for an affair.
That’s just the angle taken by the website maritalaffair.co.uk – and their huge advertising campaign as angered church goers so much that they’ve set up a Facebook group calling for it to be banned from advertising in the UK.
The Facebook Group, Stop marital affair.co.uk advertising publicly in the UK, now has over 3,000 members – all angry at the non Christian values promoted by the dating website that promotes unfaithfulness in men and women.
The Facebook campaign was prompted after maritalaffair.co.uk advertised their website on a billboard, showing a topless man with a bra over his shoulder. The church goers originally complained to Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) about the billboard, but they took no action.
Church goer Jon Kuhrt created the Facebook Group, and he added a letter to the page, from the ASA:
Whilst not everyone will agree with the advertiser’s service, the poster’s content and presentation were not explicit and it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or be seen as irresponsible.
Of course the real irony here is, as we’re sure you can see, by creating a Facebook Group to protest against the cheating website, the church goers have merely done more to further promote the site than maritalaffair.co.uk could have ever done themselves with their advertising budget. They’ve promoted it to the friends and family of every one of the 3,000 plus members of the Facebook Group, and they’ve ensured news coverage on a variety of different websites, including The Telegraph.
Some protests should be kept quiet, and using Facebook to protest against advertising is something of an oxymoron.
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The campaign was successful and marital affair has now stopped advertising in the UK. Not an Oxymoron, but an example of free speech and common sense in practice.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” Margaret Mead