More Dollars Than Sense?

Are billboards really going to be the next craze in the quest for long-lasting love? Recently I posted on the effort by an American group of friends to find a date for their fellow colleague, Lance Archibald. The group erected a billboard on the interstate and created a website to review submissions from the thousands of women who then nominated themselves as a potential date for the eligible bachelor. Now it appears that Lance’s billboard at least, found a mate. Also appearing on the interstate was the response featuring the niece of Donny and Marie Osmond - “I’m Anmaree! Let’s go out Lance!”.

The managing editor of Connect Magazine, a regional business publication, Anmaree Osmond is 30 years old and currently single. A returned LDS missionary and BYU graduate, she is also said to look favourably upon the prospect of having children. After seeing the initial billboard, Anmaree’s co-workers at Connect Magazine felt that she would be a perfect match for Lance and that the best way to go about arranging a date was to get their own sign. What followed was the DateMeLance billboard which appeared on two electronic signs bordering the interstate and the website providing Anmaree’s credentials and qualities.

Copying the general design of the original billboard, the DateMeLance campaign was mounted to catch the man’s attention. As I couldn’t find anything to suggest it had however, I’m not sure that it actually succeeded. It has become at least a small part of the international phenomenon though. What some say started as an elaborate practical joke has become bigger than anyone ever imagined. The story has now appeared in more than 150 newspapers, five of those overseas and the website has recorded over one million hits.

And why is something so Utah-county specific making nation-wide and international news? Well it seems that this was asked to a television producer who replied that there was not a lot of uplifting and funny news out there at the moment. This story is a relief from all the war, scandals, kidnappings and gas prices that people are bombarded with constantly. He’s probably right as well. This does have the potential to be about love and romance at the end of the day and that is a nice thing to be hearing at the moment. And at the very least, you do have to laugh (I'm sure some of the submissions were absolutely hilarious as well).