Ad Exec Offers Friends $10,000 to Be Set Up With Mr. Right
Almost 50 years ago, the Beatles hit the top of the pop charts with the lyrical claim that they'd happily spend all their cash on the right girl, because, as they sang: "I don't care too much for money/money can't buy me love." This week, a San Francisco ad executive is putting her own twist on Lennon and McCartney: In her bid to find "the kind of thing that money just can't buy," she's ready to make love pay -- at least for her friends.
Offering a bounty of $10,000 to the person who introduces her to her future husband, the anonymous exec claims to have based her strategy on the ideas outlined in Sheryl Sandberg's famous book, "Lean In."
The woman's offer came in the form of an e-mail that she sent out to her friends. Reprinted by Agency Spy, an online publication that covers advertising agencies, her letter is extremely direct. Noting that the idea came to her at "11PM on a Sunday night," right after she "just had to squirt dish soap on leftover pizza so I wouldn't eat 2 more slices," she recalls her epiphany as feeling like "['Lean In' author] Sheryl Sandberg and [celebrity matchmaker] Patti Stanger bitch slapped me across the face with a soaking wet 'stop being single' towel."
In that moment, she realized that she needed to approach her search for a husband the same way she would approach a search for a job: by leveraging her social networks. Realizing that many marriages are the result of "introductions by friends," she decided to offer her friends an incentive to come across with the introductions. A $10,000 incentive.
According to the exec, the equation is actually quite simple:
Step 1: You set me up on a date with a man
Step 2: I marry that man
Step 3: I give you $10,000 on my wedding day
Lest this offer appear, well, insane, the author gives yet another reason for bribing her friends to find her a husband.
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As she notes, the search for true love never comes without a price. In her case, the price has been -- among other things -- 1,000 insider points from Sephora, a high-end makeup store. She goes on to point out that these rewards, which indicate that she's spent at least $1,000 at the chain, were not accrued "because I buy beauty products to impress my 4-year old nephew."
To her credit, the plan has already borne fruit: According to Agency Spy, the matrimonially minded Californian has already been set up with 100 potential dates -- enough to keep her busy for at least a few months. That having been said: What do you think? Is this a good idea? Is there a more cost-effective way to find a spouse? Perhaps most important, if she finds her future beau through this crowd-sourced search, should she let him know? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Bruce Watson is DailyFinance's Savings editor. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.
