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Internet dating goes to the movies

Internet dating has begun taking its first tentative steps into the offline world. Allegra Grevelius attends a movie dating event and meets everyone from a youngster with a hankering for yummy mummies to older singles looking for love.

Published: 15 May 2008 12:26 CEST
Internet dating goes to the movies

They are all at it. Yeah, you bet. Swedes are among Europe’s most prolific users of internet dating sites: with hundreds of sites offering to hook you up with the man or woman of your dreams, practically every single (and some not so single) Swede is online.

There is absolutely no stigma attached to internet dating in this country as almost everyone knows somebody who actually hooked up for good with someone they met online. However, even the virtual meat market can be tough going, especially if you are a reserved Swede who is a teeny bit scared of actually meeting up in the flesh.

This is why dating site meetic.com has started to arrange special members’ events in a bid to lure them away from their screensavers and into the dating arena. On a balmy Thursday evening in early May, Meetic sponsored their first cinema dating event together with Fox, showing an exclusive preview screening of the Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher vehicle “What happens in Vegas”.

The film’s title is rather apt, all things considered. It echoes the saying “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. This couldn’t be a better reference point for a group of singles out to mingle on a warm spring evening in central Stockholm.

Rosé wine is the tipple of choice at the Östermalm Park cinema near Stureplan where about 200 people crowd in for a drinks party before the film. TV crews move around as people pour into the foyer.

Patrik Ericson, PR Event manager for meetic.com takes a minute to tell The Local that “dating events are a thing of the future. It is an honest forum for meeting someone, and it is a good thing to do between chatting on Meetic and going on a date”.

In other words, it is safety in numbers, something many Swedes subscribe to. Because the fact is, even though online dating is huge in Sweden, people often find it difficult to take the first step and actually go on a date. Ericson explains: “Because of this, Meetic have started to arrange live dating events, to facilitate the physical meetings. Online dating is going offline.”

As I mingle amongst the crowd I chat to a few people and am pleasantly surprised by the number of people hoping to bump into someone they have chatted to online. Needless to say, I scan the room for any potential prey of my own. I meet a young man who goes by the screen name of Hushmand. He is there with his mate and says he has been online dating for a couple of months.

He soon gets upfront and personal. At 19, Hushmand is looking for an older woman, as, apparently, is everyone else he knows. In Hushmand´s eyes “older woman” is someone aged 28-35, so that just about puts me out of business.

But his dark brown eyes light up considerably when I ask him for his mobile number. Maybe it is his lucky night? The day after, I call Hushmand to find out how the evening went and whether he continued socializing after the film. “No”, he says, “although there were a few yummy mummies there, but it was difficult to chat to them”. Instead, his next plan of attack is to start babysitting more so he can chat up mums in the playground.

Back to the people actually hoping to meet someone they may have chatted to online. One is Camilla, a good-looking willowy blond in her mid 40s. Camilla admits to slacking online, she hasn’t been chatting much lately.

The recent bout of sunshine in Stockholm has lured her out on the town to try and meet someone in a bar. So this type of live event is ideal as it manages to combine online and offline dating. She is a little hesitant to talk about what she is looking for but lights up when I ask her whether she actually wants to find luurve. “Yes. Do you know someone?” she laughs. Well, yeah I do, and no he is not the man I am married to, but that is another story.

Mike is in his early 50s and loves online dating. Being a member of meetic.com has been most “fruitful” he says and smiles widely. He has met several lovely ladies and grins again. In fact, he is actually meeting up with someone he met on the site later in the evening. She will join him after the film. Like many other people at the event Mike also feels that live events are a trend that will grow, mainly because it is a better way to meet people compared to bars and clubs.

And, according to Patrik Ericson, who organized the event with Fox, “another benefit of live events is that people know that everyone else is there to meet someone, so there’s more straightforwardness.” One man filmed on camera says that “the combination of chatting with someone on Meetic and then meeting them here is great”.

The popcorn queue is diminishing and people file into the cinema to watch the movie. Afterwards, there is more chatting and about 50 people have to be shown the door by cinema staff as they don’t show any intention of leaving afterwards. One woman says that she has “seen at least one guy tonight” that she would like to get to know better. So the evening has been a success.

It’s called hitting many birds with one stone. Just like tapping in your username on various dating sites.

HEALTH

IN PICTURES: 7 of the French government’s sexiest public health adverts

An advertising campaign aimed at convincing young people to get the Covid vaccine has attracted international attention, but it’s not the first time that French authorities have sexed up their public health messaging.

Published: 8 July 2021 17:22 CEST
Updated: 11 July 2021 12:16 CEST
IN PICTURES: 7 of the French government's sexiest public health adverts
Image: AIDES.

It’s an international cliché that France is the land of l’amour – or at least the land of le sexe – and that reputation does seem to be justified, given how often French public health bodies have turned to sex in an attempt to get their message across.

From the suggestive to the downright scandalous, here are seven examples of health campaigns which relied on that oh so French fondness for romance.

Get vaccinated, get laid

The Covid campaign in question was created by regional health authorities in the southern Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur region.

The poster which has got people hot under the collar features two very attractive and very French-looking people kissing, seemingly in the back of a cab after a night on the town. “Yes, the vaccine can have desirable effects,” it says.

The campaign has proved so popular that it will soon be expanded.

Promoting road safety

Earlier this year, the French Road Safety Delegation released a video ahead of Valentine’s Day, which showed a couple sharing an intimate moment in the bedroom.

The full 30-second video featured the slogan, “Life is better than one last drink for the road”.

Another image of two people kissing, seemingly without clothes, included the line, “Life, love. On the road, don’t forget what truly matters.”

Fight against HIV/AIDS

While the link between road safety and sex isn’t immediately obvious, less surprising are the references to intimacy in the health ministry’s HIV awareness campaign from 2016.

Each of the different posters shows two men embracing. Straplines include, “With a lover, with a friend, with a stranger. Situations vary, and so do the protective measures.”

The posters shocked conservative sensibilities, and several right-wing mayors asked for them to be taken down in their towns. 

HIV awareness campaign

Just a few days after the controversy over the ministry’s posters ignited, the non-profit AIDES launched its own campaign, and it didn’t hold back.

The posters showed scuba instructors, piano teachers and parachutists, all of them naked alongside their students. The slogan: “People undergoing treatment for HIV have a lot of things to pass onto us. But the AIDS virus isn’t one.”

“Even if we’ve been spreading this information since 2008, we realise that a lot of people don’t know that antiviral treatments prevent spreading,” head of AIDES Aurélien Beaucamp told France Info.

“People are still afraid of those who are HIV-positive.” 

Government-mandated pornography

It’s common for sexualised advertising campaigns to be labelled pornographic by critics, but in 1998, the French government went a step further and created actual pornography.

READ ALSO Language of love – 15 of the best romantic French phrases

The health ministry commissioned TV station Canal Plus to create five short erotic films to encourage the use of condoms and prevent the spread of HIV. The campaign featured up-and-coming directors such as Cedric Klapisch and Gaspar Noé.

“The only possible way to look at, to get people to protect themselves, is to show, show everything, show simply and without creating an obsession of the sexual act and the act of wearing a condom,” Klapisch said, according to an Associated Press story published at the time. 

You didn’t really think we’d include images of this one, did you? (OK, here’s a link for those who are curious).

A controversial anti-smoking campaign

https://twitter.com/MarketainmentSE/status/212863393143586817

It’s time to forget what we said about romance, because there is nothing romantic about this 2010 campaign from the Droits des Non-Fumeurs (Non-smokers’ rights) association and the BDDP & Fils communications agency.

The campaign featured several images of young people with a cigarette in their mouths, looking up at an adult man who rested his hand on their heads. The cigarette appeared to be coming out of the man’s trousers.

The slogan said, “Smoking means being a slave to tobacco”. The association said the sexual imagery was meant to get the attention of young people who were desensitised to traditional anti-smoking messages, but the posters caused outrage, with members of the government publicly criticising the choice of imagery.

Celebrating LGBTQ+ love

On the other end of the spectrum is this very romantic video from the national health agency Santé Publique France. It was released on May 17th 2021, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and was part of a campaign against anti-LGBT discrimination and violence. It is set to Jean-Claude Pascal’s Nous les amoureux

Showing a diverse range of couples kissing, holding hands, and healing each other’s wounds, the video ends on the word play: “In the face of intolerance, it’s up to us to make the difference.”

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