Weirdest viral marketing stunt ever? Chinese dating site fires employee after death penalty message

When you think about dating, do you think about child trafficking and the death penalty?

Me neither. But that’s the topic an employee of Chinese dating site Zhenai apparently tried to use in a message that went viral across China’s social media networks on Wednesday.

A deluge of messages about “supporting the death penalty for child traffickers” began popping up on Chinese social networks, sparked by genuine advocates of legal reform. But at least one company has also attempted to piggyback on the viral explosion for its own marketing benefit. This came to light after the “Mobile Internet” public WeChat account noticed that a number of the death-penalty support posts had a strange coda: “Thanks to the Zhenai [dating] site for its friendly support.” The message linked to Zhenai’s signup page.

In a subsequent statement, Zhenai claimed that the messages were the work of a single employee who initiated the tasteless marketing campaign on his own without company authorization. That employee has been fired, the company says, although the person in question was not named. But oddly, the company’s statement also says that it does like to follow hotbutton social issues and that it has participated in similar “public interest” events in the past, calling on its members to exert a positive influence on society

Zhenai was once China’s biggest dating site, but it has long since been eclipsed by other services like Jiayuan. The company’s marketing misfire has, for the first time in quite a while, catapulted it into the headlines. Its reputation is taking quite a beating in the comments sections of most Chinese tech news sites, but people are talking about Zhenai, which is more than one could say for the company at this time last week.

Any press is good press – the old adage may prove true in this case. But personally I think it’s quite twisted to use real discussion of an important issue like child trafficking as a means to advertise your for-profit dating site. Not every marketing opportunity you can take is an opportunity you should take.