Dating is supposed to be fun and exciting, and should never be synonymous to child trafficking and death penalty.
This is what happened when pop-up messages containing "supporting the death penalty for child traffickers" flooded Chinese social networks last week. An employee of the once-popular dating site Zhenai used this message that quickly went viral across China.
Riding coat tails for the instant publicity Zhenai received, Mobile Internet's public WeChat account was quick to link its comment. "Thanks to the Zhenai [dating] site for its friendly support," to the Zhenai sign up page.
Zhenai promptly released a statement claiming that the messages were the work of a single employee who did not have the authority to produce such morbid campaign. Consequently, the unnamed employee had been immediately fired for the uproar caused by the messages.
Once China's largest and most popular website, Zhenai is now miles behind other services like Jiayuan. The marketing gaffe, however, placed Zhenai hot in the headlines with its name stuck in various comments section all throughout China.
Negative publicity is still good publicity, as it has been a while since Zhenai was seen in the spotlight. Due to this marketing blunder, people are now hearing the company's name where it can be seen in comment sections of some of the most popular Chinese tech sites. This is not so bad for what was once China's biggest dating site.
This incident is a reminder that companies have to be more responsible when sending out messages to the online world, where it can influence people from all ages and walks of life. Sensitive and serious issues such as child trafficking and death penalty should not be taken lightly. A simple reminder that not all marketing opportunity is worth taking the risk for.