Are Dating Sites Using False Advertising?
I’ve seen talk lately on the Net about whether dating sites are falsely leading clients to believe that by signing up and paying the site’s fee, then they will find a mate and/or get married. There’s even been a lengthy report saying the same.
The problem for dating sites is that it is difficult if not impossible for the site to know what the success rate (pairings or marriages made) of any site might be. How could they? The only way the site is going to know if two people met on their site is if the couple tells them intentionally.
Some people who manage to couple up through a dating site might be happy and proud and unselfconscious enough to tell the site and allow the site to use their names and/or photos for promotion. But I suspect that for many couples, their budding romance is a private thing, and they may just quietly drop offline and continue their lives together. Maybe even not telling anyone at all how they met.
I don’t think that it is unfair of dating sites to show happy couples in the promotion of their sites. In fact, I think it is great how some sites seem to be actually using real live couples who met on that site in the ads (I’m thinking of eHarmony here—eHarmony, I hope those folks are real couples and not models!). I do think a consumer would have to be incredibly naive to think that signing up guarantees the results of marriage.
It’s like the lottery: Ads for lotteries show happy winners, not dejected losers. And your chances with online dating are much better than winning the lottery.
Just keep in mind that the Internet and dating sites are TOOLS, like the telephone. The tool doesn’t do the work, you do—the tool just makes the job easier. Dating sites facilitate singles meeting each other, better than anything anyone has come up with yet. The better you become at using the tool, the better your results will be.
From Your Romance Coach, Kathryn Lord
