eHarmony Uses Misleading Lesbian Personals Ads on Facebook
While browsing various gay and lesbian related groups on Facebook this evening, I noticed an eHarmony ad pop up in the right-hand sidebar. I would've been shocked had I not already posted an article that stated the following:"eHarmony.com has agreed to provide services to people seeking same-sex relationships, under a settlement reached Wednesday in New Jersey.
The online dating service was sued in 2005 by Eric McKinley, a gay man from New Jersey, after the matchmaking service refused to take his personal advertisement, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported."
One of my Twitter followers said the following: "No, they [gays and lesbians] get Compatible Partners. (Which is yet to be launched. Look to March 31st, 2009, for that.)"
And she's right. When you visit eHarmony.com, the choices in the drop-down menu still read "man seeking woman" and "woman seeking man." I clicked on the Facebook eHarmomy advertisement thinking it would take me to a special gay personals landing page, and that landing page still shows only two choices: "man seeking woman" and "woman seeking man."
I wonder if eHarmony's Facebook ads are part of a marketing research project where they're testing the waters and trying to decide how much money they can realistically make by offering gay personals on a "special"
segregated section of their web site. What other reasons would they have for posting misleading advertisements? The segregated gay personals site won't launch until March 2009.
Originally posted at: http://sisterstalk.tblog.com/post/1970032480
Comment
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Comment by msjag on November 23, 2008 at 6:25pm - Why give them your money? You will be paying $20/month or more to be on a segregated section of the site. How is that fair? Screw em! Give your money to any of the other dozens of sites available. Principles sometimes verges on hard-headedness.
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Comment by RAD Moose on November 23, 2008 at 4:31pm -
Yes, the are misleading. But some affiiates will do that without the parent companies permission. For example, if the affiliate thought that eHarmony would make a change to their website, they could get a lot more click-thru's by being first. Some affiiate systems would place a cookie so when you sign up they get credit.
On the otherhand there are also companies that post misleading ads to get people angry at the company (there were lots of these during the election on Google AdSense for example.)
Considering that FaceBook gave out a bunch of free advertising to be used for new advertisers to get used to the FaceBook system, it is possible that they are taking advantage of that.
You asked for what other reasons =)
I am aware of eHarmony and how the "29 Dimensions of Compatibility" is targeted towards conservative straight couples, so that was why I clicked through to your post, as I was wondering what was going on as well.
I would think that if eHarmony was actually doing market research that they would have placed it to a landing page instead of annoying a potential customer to their new service.
Are the ads still online? Where did you see them?
I am actually going to go on my Facebook to see if I get any 'gay' eHarmony ads.
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Comment by Genia Stevens on November 23, 2008 at 3:43pm - I haven't written to them to ask. Even if it's an eHarmony affiliate, the ads are still misleading. There are no gay and lesbian personals on eHarmony. When the ads do appear, they won't be on the main site, but that's the URL the misleading ads link to right now.
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Comment by RAD Moose on November 23, 2008 at 3:38pm
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I am wondering if eHarmony actually placed those ads or are they from an affiliate or someone pushing the issue regarding eHarmony being for straight couples only.
Have you written to eHarmony asking about this?
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