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VANCOUVER: Livelinks, a personal dating company in 175 cities across North America, had an interesting marketing challenge. It had to convince its primary target market--single females--that its service was not phone sex or another dating service, but a perfectly respectable and fun way to meet men. And, it wasn't just enough to sell these women on the upside of this "virtual bar."
First, Livelinks' owner, Vancouver-based Boulevard Media, and Rethink, its ad agency, had to convince television and radio stations to run its raunchy campaign on prime time and move the ads from the back to the middle of magazines and newspapers.
Chris Staples, a partner in Rethink, says advertising in this genre has typically made single people "the butt of the joke."
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