A French dating website called ‘Adopte un mec.com’ (literally ‘Adopt a guy.com’) launched the first store in which women can come to shop for a man. It is a temporary store that opened in Paris in mid-september and has been travelling around France, Belgium and Switzerland since then. The store targets young and single women, over eighteen years old. The principle is that men with certain characteristics (for example Mr. Muscle or Mr. Adventurous) stand in Ken-doll-like boxes all day long while women look for the perfect match, interact and take pictures with them.
The website always uses unexpected advertising strategies but this is the biggest communication ‘coup’ it has made so far. The organizers say that the concept has to be taken with a grain of salt. Some people found it degrading and unethical.
It is a pretty risky strategy because it can create strong reactions, although it seems to have increased the brand’s popularity, with over a thousand people coming to the Parisian store. It can also be argued that if women were in the boxes instead of men, this would lead to a big controversy, harming the brand’s image for good.
Companies are constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be advertised or not, they change over time and according to cultural and social values. The limit is very thin between a daring strategy and an unethical marketing move. Internet-based companies seem to be going further and further, for example ‘Gleeden’, which defines itself at ‘The first extramarital dating site made by women’. Can companies cross every ethical and moral limit in order to make profits? To what extent should ethics be leading their marketing strategies, and even the product or service provided itself?
[A short video to have a look at the store]
Sources :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2201753/AdoptAGuy-French-dating-site-launches-travelling-store-women-men-literally-shelf.html
http://www.lepoint.fr/insolite/adopteunmec-com-ouvre-une-boutique-ephemere-avec-des-hommes-en-vitrine-11-09-2012-1505171_48.php