Creepy. From Google Ads and Chnlove.com
I was updating my “Visual Bookshelf” on Facebook for the first time in about… five months or so. I did a book search for “Iron and Silk” by Mark Salzman, and up pops the ad you see on the right. There’s very little that isn’t creepy about it. I mean even the domain name, when pronounced phonetically, sounds like some kind of fetishist sex act.
I googled “chnlove” and it looks like their service’s tagline is:
The No.1 Chinese dating and matchmaking site for Chinese single women and foreign single men to love and marriage.
I’ve always been a little puzzled by the near-universality of “yellow fever” among guys here in the States (full disclosure: although technically immune, apparently I’m just as susceptible). I was also surprised by how Westerners automatically assume at least a nominal celebrity status in China, even the more obviously sleazy douchebags I saw haunting the nightclubs and bars.
I’m not sure what I’d call it… “Cauca-mania” just seems slightly too evocative.
In the end, I suppose even sleazy douchebags need love, and I can’t think of any group of people more suited to supply it to them than gold diggers. I guess I was just surprised to see it lurking there on my Facebook page.
About the ad itself… two things.
First: I like how Google thinks that since I’m looking for a book about an expat in China, I’m probably also on the prowl for a mail-order bride. It suggests some interesting things about the current state of targeted marketing algorithms.
Second: What’s up with the guy they chose to represent their target demographic? He looks at best like a Russian mafioso, at worst a child-molesting version of the guy from The Dan Band. I have serious doubts as to whether he even wore pants to that photo shoot. No offense, dude. You just kind of creep me out.