Real People
Late at night (and I do, occasionally stay up late at night) there are a whole slew of infomercials on TV that show an extremely attractive woman advertising (dominantly) to men offering them verbal companionship across a pay service. Essentially, you can dial a number, either enter your credit card or allow your phone bill to billed, and then talk to girls who (you are led to believe) are a) very attractive; and b) sitting around at home waiting for you to call and speak to them.
Given the proliferation of these commercials, the number of companies that now exist to sell this service, and the amount of air-time they are afforded (cost is essential here), this has to be a growth market. Phone and private companies have to be making a killing off of the ability of an individual to call into one of these services and believe they are talking with miss supermodel they saw on the commercial.
The reality, however, is not that they can call in and actually speak to someone real, but rather, the visual anonymity of the experience allows for one (or both) sides of the conversation to believe they are speaking to whomever they want.
In truth, that spokeswoman, on the commercial, is a paid actress who received a set sum of money to repeat lines written for her and who has (most likely) never used that service. She was hired because she has a specific kind of look. You, however, get to pay to listen to someone who (in reality) does not resemble that woman in any way, shape, or form.
The truth is that these companies are using marketing techniques (i.e. sex sells) to convince their desired demographic to tune in, listen up, and pull the credit card from the wallet. This becomes especially true of people who may live alone, want companionship, are up late at night, and don't like the awkwardness of face-to-face meetings. The outcome is a business model that must work and that will allow the (personally) awkward to pay to leave their shells - often with the belief that attractive women are just sitting there waiting for them to call.
Why would anyone believe that to be true?
I don't really know. Honestly, there has never been a time, or a period, in my life when I've felt so out of it and so lonely that I needed to resort to spending money to speak to someone of the opposite sex. Truth told, and admittedly, church is one of the many ways I discovered (as a single adult) of encountering and working through some of the (personal) obstacles to speak with people. If it got bad enough (back in the day) I knew that (sooner or later) I would just ask someone out or there would be an activity, and the people I went to church with (no money spent) became a social outlet. The outcome was very nice.
However, on the opposing side to that, there were times (as I got older, moved, became less amiable to outside activities) where I did not choose to go and be among my peers. At those times, I discovered that going out and just being in society, though not necessarily a part of society, was enough to fend off the need to resort to falling for the tactics these companies have.
I am sure the business model is rather solid (on the part of the phone and private companies). It doesn't take an actuary to determine that X number of people are single, and of X, X% are single and male; of those a different percentage will resort to calling the lines and talking, and of that number a percentage will not only call, but will keep calling fulfilling he need for some form of human contact.
There are other models out there for the same thing. You can look to the mail order brides as a form of acquiring companionship (read physical) without the effort of doing anything. A woman from, say, Korea wants a better life and as a result does everything she can to move from her 2nd to 3rd world country into the United States. Or Russia... or one of almost every country out there.
Or, you can look at the myriad of dating services that offer promises of romance and compatibility matching online simply by filling out a series of questionnaires and paying a large sum of money for a period from six to twelve months. The idea isn't that you, the individual, will go out into society, but rather that as a result of the anonymous nature of the internet, you can view and passively meet people - hoping for something akin to the international mail order bride market.
The closer you are (before) Valentines Day, the more of these ads, in general, you will see running and the more they will run during Prime Time shows. The farther (before) the fewer you will see running (until late night). However, these companies make their money off of convincing the general public they can find love, or they are more likely to find love, and companionship by using their service.
Essentially, they cry out, "Pay me and I will do what you can't do."
Sure, in all of these cases there is the probability of actually finding love; however, when you consider the numbers and that these projects are more closely related to arranged marriages than they are to actually romance, courting, and love... the outcome seems to be counter to what is being advertised.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West
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