Just recently I noticed that eHarmony is running some cheesy ads on TV. Unfortunately, YouTube only has limited number of ads and not all variations are present, so I cannot link to the one I was watching. There are, however, a few more that are so cheesy they’ve lost all the kick. But I digress.
The point that I want to reinforce is that the major eHarmony’s selling point is the increased distance between members, so that you would settle for anything as long as the pain of going over the questionnaires would stop. At least two of ads on YouTube feature people holding (literally) stacks of paper with member’s profile data. I’m not saying you should make every date a blind date, but at least don’t make it a scientific research.
On the other hand I just might be barking at the wrong tree. One of the commercials start with these exact words: “My mom mentioned eHarmony”. Right off the bat this position the eHarmony’s target audience as immature people who need hand holding when choosing life partner. So now I am thinking – maybe all those questions aren’t bad. Maybe it’s the hand-holding that those immature people need and crave in order to find someone decent, someone they could finally settle with. You know, someone just good enough.