My friend Ian Percy pointed out that in Sue Pelletier’s blog entry “What’s your backstory?” she discusses the Dentyne “Happy Hunting” guide to help young men and women seem more attractive to each other. For example, it gives some fake stories you can use to impress the other sex (e.g., you were in a commercial as a kid, backup dancer in a rap video, won a big payout in a slot machine).
It has “business cards with attitude” templates that allow you to fill in your name and number and a printable PDF will be downloaded. Women could pose as a belly dance instructor, runway model, beer quality control, sex therapist, or lingerie designer. Men can pretend to be a game developer, poker instructor, pilot or movie location coordinator.
There are printable photos of your supposed hot car, lake house, dog, race horse, motorcycle, etc., to have in your wallet to show your potential date.
It will tutor you so you can assume an accent (French, Italian and British for men; French, Italian and Swedish for women). Guys can choose customizable clippings of them supposedly doing something heroic. And women get tutoring in “guy talk” about sports, financial info, and male movies.
So the message is you aren’t good enough to make someone interested in you based on who you are. You have to pretend to be someone more accomplished, interesting, or foreign. I thought society had progressed to the point where it was perfectly fine to be honestly and unabashedly who you are, and if someone doesn’t find you compelling, then just move on.
While the Dentyne campaign is amusing, what messages does it send to singles — especially young singles? They have to lie to get a date? This is the wrong message. If you don’t think you’re very interesting, go out and do something to make yourself more so.
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Comments
2 responses to “Would you lie to get laid?”
Dating Goddess,
You are right on. This is the wrong message. Sure, the lies might get you a date…but if you find this is someone with whom you want to go further, then where are you? You’re going to have to come clean sometime.
It reminds me of when I was in high school….frantically reading the sports pages so that I would have something to discuss with the cute boys in my class. Problem was, I couldn’t have cared less about sports. (Well, okay it was fun when the Bucs won the Super Bowl, and the Red Sox won the World Series….but that’s the extent of my enthusiasm.) When I was in high school I remember reading articles that taught me that if I wanted to attract a boy I needed to be interested in the things boys were interested in.
Well, turns out Prince Charming turned out to be someone who has about as much interest in sports as I do….very little. 🙂 Truth is, he hasn’t turned out to be the idealized version of Prince Charming either.
However, when we both got real about who we are, learned to enjoy the areas we have in common, celebrate our differences, and accept the personality quirks that sometimes drive us crazy, we are left with a very real, loving, caring, passionate relationship with our best friend.
If you start out with a lie (or two or three) you haven’t got a chance.
Donna — you’re so right. I wonder if Dentyne is thinking that people are just looking for a one-night hookup, so they’ll never have to come clean. If so, it’s interesting that a major corporation is now encouraging one-night stands!